Among patients who are cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody positive, the risk for rheumatoid arthritis significantly increases as the level of antibodies rise, according to data published in Arthritis Care & Research.

“Previous studies have demonstrated presence of RA-specific antibodies like cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (CCP) in the serum several years prior to RA onset,” Julia A. Ford, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues wrote. “To date, much of what is known about CCP-positive individuals without classifiable RA comes from blood bank studies, studies of unaffected family members of patients with RA, and cohort studies of patients recruited from European arthralgia clinics.”