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43. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Rheumatologie, 29. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Orthopädische Rheumatologie, 25. Wissenschaftliche Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendrheumatologie

02.-05. September 2015, Bremen

Characterization of ferritin peptide autoantibody positive patients with infectious febrile diseases

Meeting Abstract

  • Astrid Behnert - Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Klinik für Immunologie und Rheumatologie, Hannover
  • Torsten Witte - Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Klinik für Immunologie und Rheumatologie, Hannover
  • Reinhold E. Schmidt - Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Klinik für Immunologie und Rheumatologie, Hannover
  • Niklas Baerlecken - Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Klinik für Immunologie und Rheumatologie, Hannover

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Rheumatologie. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Orthopädische Rheumatologie. Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendrheumatologie. 43. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Rheumatologie (DGRh); 29. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Orthopädische Rheumatologie (DGORh); 25. wissenschaftliche Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendrheumatologie (GKJR). Bremen, 02.-05.09.2015. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2015. DocVK.14

doi: 10.3205/15dgrh240, urn:nbn:de:0183-15dgrh2400

Published: September 1, 2015

© 2015 Behnert et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.


Outline

Text

Introduction: Giant cell arteritis (GCA) affecting medium and large arteries and polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) causing muscle ache and stiffness are both frequent rheumatic disorders in the elderly population. Our group described the association of ferritin autoantibodies (AFA) with early untreated GCA/PMR. However, we observed in our daily routine that patients with severe infectious diseases (ID) were frequently positive as well. We evaluated ID patients for the presence of AFA.

Methods: Sera of patients with ID (primarily febrile HIV+ patients (n=50), patients with chronic hepatitis (n=51) and patients with sepsis or severe pneumonia (n=14)), sera of patients with GCA/PMR (n=30) and of blood donors (n=45) were analyzed. GCA/PMR patients were with (n=11) or without treatment (n=6), had active disease (n=21) or were in partial remission (n=3). All samples were collected at Hannover Medical School and tested on an established ELISA using anti-human IgG Fc as secondary antibody. SPSS and GraphPad Prism 5 software were used for statistical analysis.

Results: In our cohort 73% of patients with ID had a positive result, while 67% of untreated GCA/PMR patients and 7% of healthy blood donors were positive for AFA. In the subgroup analysis of ID patients we found that 78% of HIV patients, 74% of hepatitis patients and 65% of patients with either sepsis or severe pneumonia had antibodies directed against ferritin.

Conclusion: We conclude that hospitalized patients with severe ID (both viral and bacterial) are often positive for AFA. Severe infections have to be taken into account in the interpretation of a positive AFA.