What Is Seronegative Rheumatoid Arthritis?

What Is Seronegative Rheumatoid Arthritis? (1:32)

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis typically have a blood marker for the disease. Some patients, however, do not have this blood marker. They are said to be seronegative, explains W. Hayes Wilson, MD, chief of rheumatology at Piedmont Hospital.

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Though seronegative RA is where the test, the serone test for rheumatoid arthritis is negative, the rheumatoid factor is positive in 70% or 80% of people after they've had it for several years that means that in 20-30% of people it's negative even after they've had it a number of years. And actually when you're first diagnosed, it's probably less than 50% have the rheumatoid factor positive so those, it's the rheumatoid factor when we're talking about seropositivity.

So many of the seronegative patients, patients who have rheumatoid arthritis, the rheumatoid factor is negative, have a positive CCP, Cyclic Citrullinated Peptide and, or elevated sed rate and c-reactive protein. So, in order to have rheumatoid arthritis you have to have inflammation, arthr means joint, itis means inflammation, rheumatoid arthritis being a systemic inflammatory illness,
there needs to be some component or usually there's some component in your blood work that's abnormal as well, but if the component, it's the rheumatoid factor is negative, we call it seronegative.