Comparison of sensitivity and specificity of anti-CCP and anti-MCV antibodies in an Iranian cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Anti-CCP is a test commonly used for the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic values of ACCP compared to anti-MCV in rheumatoid arthritis patients in north of Iran. The serum samples of 150 RA patients and 75 controls, with the mean age of 49.6+11.8 and 48.8+12 years respectively, were tested using the commercially available ELISA kits for ACCP and anti-MCV. Sensitivity, Specificity were determined and Roc curve were used for comparison between these two groups. The sensitivity of ACCP versus anti-MCV was 85% and 81%, respectively. Specificity was 96% and 95%, respectively. In the RA patients, ACCP was positive in 127 (84.7%) and anti MCV in 121 (80.7%) cases. In the control group, these parameters were positive in 3 (4%) and 4 (5.3%) (p<0.0001 and p<0.0001, respectively). The correlation coefficient for ACCP and anti-MCV was calculated at 0.63 (p<0.001). The area under the curve for ACCP was 0.941±0.015 (p<0.001), anti-MCV was 0.902±0.02 (p<0.001). The measure of agreement (Kappa) for these variables was 0.81. In these patients, there was no correlation between DAS28 and the positivity of these tests. It was concluded, compared to ACCP, anti-MCV has approximately the same accuracy for the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis and it does not have additional value.