Absence of circulating antineutrophil cytoplasm antibodies (ANCA) in severe vasculitis associated with rheumatoid arthritis.

Sixteen patients with classical rheumatoid arthritis (RA) complicated by severe vasculitis were studied and compared with a matched control group of 17 RA patients without vasculitis. A control group of 24 patients with unrelated disease was also included. Neither antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (C-ANCA) nor anti-myeloperoxidase (anti-MPO) were found. Granulocyte specific antinuclear antibodies ("GS-ANA") were found in a higher frequency in the vasculitis group (75%) than in the RA control group (41%), but the difference was not statistically significant. No patient in the control group without RA had "GS-ANA".