New blood test ‘could aid early arthritis risk detection’

UK researchers have identified a marker that can indicate a person's likelihood of suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, which could form the basis of a new blood test.

A team from the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology at Oxford University have determined that a blood test seeks out antibodies that recognise the protein tenascin-C could be a reliable way of showing who will contract the condition.

Looking at results from more than 2,000 patients, it was found that testing for antibodies that target citrullinated tenascin-C could diagnose rheumatoid arthritis in around 50 percent of cases, including some cases not identified by current CCP testing protocols.

Moreover, the new test had  a very low rate of false positives, proving to be 98 percent accurate in ruling out rheumatoid arthritis.

The Kennedy Institute's Professor Kim Midwood said: "This discovery therefore gives us an additional test that can be used to increase the accuracy of the CCP assay and that can predict rheumatoid arthritis, enabling us to monitor people and spot the disease early."

With this test, it could become easier to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis at a stage when it can be treated more effectively.