Key clinical point: Positivity for a ntipeptidyl-arginine deiminase type-3 (anti-PAD3) antibodies was associated with higher disease activity and joint damage scores in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Major finding: Patients positive vs. negative for anti-PAD3 had significantly higher 28-swollen joint count (7.1 vs. 4.3; P less than .0001), 28-joint disease activity score-erythrocyte sedimentation rate (4.2 vs. 3.7; P = .005), and radiographic damage (14.9 vs. 8.8; P = .02).
Study details: Findings are from the assessment of biomarkers in 851 patients with RA and 516 disease controls (axial spondyloarthritis, n=320; psoriatic arthritis, n=196) from the Swiss Clinical Quality Management registry.
Disclosures: This work was supported by the De Reuter Foundation. M Mahler, C Bentow, and L Martinez-Prat declared being current or former employees at Inova Diagnostics. All the other authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Source: Lamacchia C et al. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2021 Jan 27. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keab050 .