Help with understanding all of this!

S3ren85

Hi everyone,

I've just received my blood test results back, I've tested positive for CCP and have a rheumatoid factor of 44. The letter from the hospital says all my results indicate that I have sero positive rheumatoid arthritis. I'm trying not to worry too much but my appointment with the rheumatologist consultant isnt for another 5 weeks!

Can you please help me understand what this all means? What scale is the rheumatoid factor measured on? It's a bit frustrating being given a score of 44 but not knowing whether that's out of 50 or 1000!

Thanks everyone 😊

dreamdaisy

I'll do my best to help but not many people look in on this part of the forum as it is designated for news from the charity.

I know that auto-immune arthritis can be either sero-positive (as you have been diagnosed) or sero-negative (as is mine, i.e. rheumatoid factor is not present in my blood). I have no idea what the rheumatoid scale is but logic and assumption does not apply with these things. I have had inflammation measures in the 170s for my joints, and upwards of 2000 for my liver so although 100 would seem logical it may not be the case. This may sound tough but I don't think it is of any great import because the crucial thing is it is positive. It confirms that you have something auto-immune and inflammatory going on and that does make the docs lives somewhat easier. There are around three hundred kinds of auto-immune inflammatory conditions, including the various forms of that kind of arthritis, but the meds for the arthritis are all very similar. I was accurately diagnosed nine years after the first symptoms appeared and four years after I began the meds: it changed nothing.

I was born with eczema and went on to develop asthma (from my mum's side of the family) aged seven and the arthritis (in my case psoriatic) omes from my dad's side. Both parents fired into me the genetic bullets they dodged (Phillip Larkin had it spot on ) Is there a familial history pf auto-immune condtions in your background? It doesn't matter how remote, it establishes the predisposition. It can also start out of the blue, a perfectly behaved immune system can decide to go into overdrive just for the fun of it; recognised triggers include pregnancy and illness, it is also thought stress could be a factor: that can certainly aggravate matters.

I am 23 years in and although life has been made different it has, overall, been OK thanks to the meds. If you post again on the Living with Arthritis board on here more people might see it and better informed ones might reply. Please let us know how you get on. DD