TY  - CHAP
M1  - Book, Section
TI  - Rheumatology
A1  - Kumar, Bharat
A1  - Aluri, Vijay
A1  - Tuetken, Rebecca
A2  - Wilbur, Jason K.
A2  - Graber, Mark A.
A2  - Ray, Brigit E.
Y1  - 2018
N1  - 
T2  - Graber and Wilbur's Family Medicine Examination & Board Review, 4e
AB  - A  few  words  on  "rheumatology  panels."  Doing  a  "rheumatology  panel"  will  never  be  the  right  answer.  The  diagnosis  of  rheumatologic  disease  is  clinical  with  specific  clinical  criteria  for  each  illness.  While  antinuclear  antibody  (ANA),  rheumatoid  factor  (RF),  erythrocyte  sedimentation  rate  (ESR),  C-reactive  protein  (CRP),  and  other  tests  may  be  useful  in  supporting  a  clinical  diagnosis  and  assessing  disease  activity,  these  tests  have  poor  specificity  and  may  be  positive  in  a  variety  of  disease  states.  A  positive  ANA  without  a  clinical  diagnosis  is  meaningless.  Likewise,  RF  helps  to  gauge  prognosis  (seropositive  vs.  seronegative)  in  rheumatoid  arthritis  (RA),  but  has  very  limited  value  as  a  diagnostic  test.  RF  may  also  be  positive  in  sarcoidosis,  viral  infections  (especially  hepatitis  C),  and  autoimmune  diseases  such  as  granulomatosis  with  polyangiitis  (formerly  known  as  Wegener  granulomatosis),  as  well  as  a  variety  of  primary  lung  and  liver  diseases.  ESR  and  CRP  may  support  the  clinical  impression  of  inflammatory  disease,  but  are  again  nonspecific.  
SN  - 
PB  - McGraw-Hill Education
CY  - New York, NY
Y2  - 2024/04/19
UR  - accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1151864667
ER  -