Medical statistics indicates an increase and progression in the number of diseases in the musculoskeletal system. Increasingly, elderly patients complain of pain in the joints that torment them. The disease also did not bypass young people, children also suffer from it. It is important to recognize joint disease at the earliest stages in order to prevent their further progression and other complications. The most common among diseases of the human skeletal system is rheumatoid arthritis, which is characterized by a complex course and no less complex treatment. Therefore, every person suffering from this disease must know about the analysis of ACCP in rheumatoid arthritis. Its norm will be given in this article.
What is the ACCP test?
RA, or rheumatoid arthritis, is a complex joint pathology that affects andchildren and adults. This disease is characterized by inflammation of the synovial membrane, destruction of the cartilage tissue of the joint and its deformation. The consequences of the fact that the pathology was not detected at the initial stage and immediate treatment was not started can be very dangerous. Deformation and destruction of the joint entail a complete or partial loss of motor functions, which in most cases is the path to disability.
Why do I need an analysis of ACCP in rheumatoid arthritis? The rate of indicators is of great importance.
What is it for?
An important step is to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis in a timely manner, which will allow you to prescribe an effective and correct treatment for the patient, which will stop the inflammatory process and restore joint function. To do this, 2 methods are used that allow you to determine the concentration of antibodies to citrulline cyclic peptide (ACCP) and rheumatoid factor (RF).
To diagnose pathology at an early stage, doctors advise using the analysis of ACCP, because this method has more accurate indicators and allows you to determine the disease regardless of the stage. The test for RF is quite specific, and the accuracy of its results mainly depends on the duration of the development of the pathology.
Rheumatoid arthritis is well detected in the early period with the help of the ACCP test. Also, thanks to him, the amount of antibodies and markers that circulate there are detected in the blood during the progression of the disease. This test determinesrelative to citrulline cyclic peptide, the amount of antibodies in the blood. This peptide is an important component of metabolism. Citrulline is formed during a biochemical reaction with the help of anginine, which is a separate amino acid.
Here's what ACCP is for rheumatoid arthritis. The norm will be given below.
Attention! It must be said that citrulline does not take part in protein synthesis and is excreted from the body over a certain period of time.
When joints are affected by arthritis, the body undergoes many changes. At the same time, citrulline is incorporated into the structure of the protein amino acid chain, which affects the functionality of the cartilaginous tissue of the joint. The peptide that contains citrulline is perceived as foreign by the immune system and produces antibodies to eliminate this threat.
What are the benefits of ACCP analysis in rheumatoid arthritis? Its norm should be known to everyone.
ADCP benefits
The ACCP test only helps to identify various types of arthritis, including rheumatoid arthritis, but is in no way suitable for diagnosing other diseases. This method of examining blood serum is one of the most fastidious and at the same time accurate, because it detects not only the disease at its early stage, but also the stage of the disease and its nature. The test is prescribed for the diagnosis of rheumatic joint damage and RA at the beginning of its development. The study allows you to draw up the most complete therapy regimen, which is aimed at getting rid of pain and relieving inflammation, rapidgetting rid of a disease such as rheumatoid arthritis.
ACCP has many advantages over RF: a high probability of detecting antibodies to ACCP several months before the development of articular nonspecific syndrome or rheumatoid arthritis into a more complex form of arthritis; the possibility of determining RA at the initial stages in 70%; the ability to determine the nature of the course of the disease; the possibility of determining RA in the progressive stage in 79% of cases; specificity and accuracy of the analysis by 98%.
And all this can reveal the analysis of ACCP in rheumatoid arthritis. What is it, we have considered.
The ACCP method can be called highly accurate, in connection with which doctors began to prescribe it more often to patients with all the signs of arthritis. Based on the results of the test, it is possible to determine the form of arthritis, as well as to predict its course, which allows the patient to prescribe the correct therapy.
Features of the procedure
What is the procedure for preparing for analysis? After assigning an ACCP analysis to a patient, he must follow a number of rules. Before the test, you can not eat (for 8 hours). Any liquid, including tea, juice and coffee, should not be consumed within 24 hours. This rule also applies to smoking, because the smoker will have to give up cigarettes for 2 hours until the analysis of ACCP in rheumatoid arthritis is carried out. Decoding in this case will be more accurate. A feature of the test can be called its conduct on an empty stomach.
Testing: Algorithm
Testblood is drawn from a vein. Serum is then extracted from it, which is subsequently used for testing for ACCP. Serum is removed in a special centrifuge. Depending on the urgency of the analysis and the availability of the laboratory, the results can be obtained within a week or immediately on the day of sampling.
Important! Serum can only be frozen once, then re-freezing results will be inaccurate.
How is ACCP analysis performed in rheumatoid arthritis? We already know what it is.
About the research process: the serum is placed in a test tube and illuminated by a laser. This method is called cytometry. According to the scattering of the laser beam in the liquid and its nature, one can judge the absence or presence of ACCP in the body.
Cost
The analysis is completely safe and painless for the patient, but quite expensive. The cost of the test varies from one thousand to one thousand seven hundred rubles, depending on the urgency and prices of the laboratory conducting the test. Not all patients are referred for this analysis, for this it is necessary to examine the symptoms of the disease and the patient's complaints.
Next, consider how the results of the ACCP analysis are deciphered in rheumatoid arthritis.
Norma
According to the results of the test, the doctor learns about the presence or absence of RA, the approximate stage of the development of the disease and the severity of its course. It should be noted that this test in medicine is one of the few in which the norm differs little in people of different ages.
After receiving blood, it can bestore no more than a week at a temperature of up to +8 degrees.
Then, the analysis of ACCP in rheumatoid arthritis is carried out. -200 degrees is the optimal temperature for freezing a blood sample, after which it can be stored indefinitely if necessary.
The norm of analysis in men, women and children of different ages can be designated as 3-3, 1 U / ml, and only in some isolated cases it can change slightly: at an early age in a child with an incompletely formed skeletal system - 2, 7-2, 7 U/ml; ACCP in RA of pregnant women - 3.8-4 U/ml; in the elderly, a gradual increase to 2 U / ml is allowed.
How does analysis stand for?
Taking into account the results of the analysis, the specialist prescribes a complex treatment, the effectiveness of which will subsequently be shown by a repeated test. The correctness of treatment should be judged on the basis of a decrease in the amount of antibodies in the blood serum. ACCP is deciphered in the presence of rheumatoid arthritis as follows: 0-20 - the indicator is negative; 20, 0-39, 9 - positive, weakly expressed; 40-59, 9 - positive; over 60 units - positive, pronounced strongly.
Important! Regardless of the fact that 20 U / ml is considered the norm of the analysis, many experts are sure that it is possible to exclude RA only when the indicators of the ACCP analysis are zero, that is, with the complete absence of these antibodies in the blood.
Conclusion
It is necessary for every patient to remember that the analysis of ACCP is 95% reliable andif the test result was negative, but all signs of rheumatoid arthritis are present, you will need to conduct an additional examination using other diagnostic methods prescribed by the attending physician.
We reviewed the analysis of ACCP in rheumatoid arthritis. Women, men and children have slightly different normal values.
