seropositive

what dose this mean and dose it make rd more aggressive

[allanah]

If you look at a post by Prairie about 7 month ago there are a few good answers that are quite in depth there. Xxxx

[Hidden]

Sero positive means that the rheumatoid factor is present in your blood tests, sero negative means it wasn't found. I don't think it makes any difference to the severity or aggressiveness of the disease.

[nomoreheels]

As I understand it seropositive is a more aggressive form, though it's not a fail safe test the likelihood of an RD diagnosis is greater. This link may help explain a little better. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/339.... I'm seropositive & my GP had bloods fast tracked, immediately referred me as an urgent case the same day & was positively diagnosed by a specialist within a fortnight.

[earthwitch]

In practical terms it really just means that you can get a clear diagnosis, and usually quite quickly, so that you can start on treatment early. The NHS has recognised that it makes sense to treat RA as quickly as they can to avoid the problems that come with long term damage and disability, which is why you get referred on very quickly these days. The usual target for referral to treatment is 12 weeks and I think its the same target for diagnosis to treatment.

Don't be fooled into thinking that seronegative necessarily means that its less severe - there are other forms of inflammatory arthritis that are seronegative and they can be incredibly severe (like ankylosing spondylitis), but have the additional problem of not being able to be diagnosed easily because they don't show up with blood tests.

[BoneyC]

Rheumatologists have told me I was seropositive when diagnosed, but 43 years later am seronegative. Don't know when or how the change happened, but it hasn't made any difference to the course of the disease - all of my joints are damaged & deformed to different degrees.

[Hidden]

Hi lucindajune,

we have an article on our website about this that you may like to read. I have put the link to it below:

nras.org.uk/seropositive-se...

Hope you find it interesting and useful,

regards

Beverley (NRAS Helpline)