Highly Accessed Open Badges Review  Autoantibody systems in
rheumatoid arthritis: specificity, sensitivity and diagnostic
value  Martinus AM van Boekel1*, Erik R Vossenaar1, Frank HJ van
den Hoogen2 and Walther J van Venrooij1  Author Affiliations  1
Department of Biochemistry, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen,
The Netherlands  2 Department of Rheumatology, UMC St Radboud,
Nijmegen, The Netherlands  For all author emails, please log on.
Arthritis Res 2002, 4:87-93  doi:10.1186/ar395   Received:11
July 2001 Revisions received:5 October 2001 Accepted:9 October
2001 Published:6 November 2001  © 2001 BioMed Central Ltd   The
diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is primarily based on
clinical symptoms, so it is often difficult to diagnose RA in
very early stages of the disease. A disease-specific
autoantibody that could be used as a serological marker would
therefore be very useful. Most autoimmune diseases are
characterized by a polyclonal B-cell response targeting multiple
autoantigens. These immune responses