Journal of Clinical and Cellular Immunology
Open Access

Abstract

Anti-Mutated Citrullinated Vimentin (Anti-MCV) Antibodies as a Diagnostic Aid for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Khaled S Osman, Lamiaa H Aly, Ahmed A Saedii, Huda T Abbas and Hana A Sadek

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the role of anti-MCV antibodies in the diagnosis of RA and correlate anti-MCV with other markers of disease activity.
Subjects and methods: The study was carried out on 70 individuals, categorized as follows; 40 patients diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (Group I), 15 patients diagnosed as osteoarthritis disease (OA) (Group II) and their results were compared to 15 apparently healthy persons as control group (Group III). All participants were subjected to careful history taking, general examination, routine laboratory investigations, in addition to, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) and anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin (anti-MCV) assays.
Results: Anti-CCP and anti-MCV values were significantly higher in group I when compared to group II and III (Pvalue<0.001 and 0.001). The optimum diagnostic cut-off point in RA patients for anti-MCV was >27.5 U/ml at which Sensitivity was 99.1, Specificity was 93.3, PPV was 97.8 and NPV was 99.8. The AUC (area under the curve) value for anti-MCV was 0.997. There were highly significant positive correlations between anti-MCV, anti-CCP and ESR in group I (P-value<0.001 and 0.001). Anti-CCP and anti-MCV were significantly higher in RF positive patients compared to RF negative patients (P-values=0.005 and 0.011 respectively), while no significant differences in anti-CCP and anti-MCV were found between CRP positive and CRP negative patients in group I.
Conclusion: Anti-MCV is an excellent marker for early diagnosis of RA with high sensitivity and specificity especially when other markers are negative. The use of anti-MCV and anti-CCP collectively give the best result for the diagnosis of rheumatoid disease.