Elevated Anti-ccp and RF without symptoms?

[lonelyplanet]

I saw a doctor when I was suffering from chronic tendinitis about seven years ago. They did a battery of tests and it came back with elevated RF 78iu/ml and 237 antiCCP. However I didn't get a RA dx since I had no inflammation markers or joint pain. Still suffering from tendon inflammation all over my body frequently but no joint pains. Did anyone else have this experience with high RF markers but no RA? Does it eventually develop into RA?

[helixhelix]

I had high RF and anti-CCP, but my inflammatory markers were only just above normal on diagnosis. However I did have hugely swollen and inflamed joints so the diagnosis was clear.

Not much of a help to you, but just to say that some people do have naturally low inflammation markers. These days if my ESR gets to 9 I am flaring - other people would think that was a marvellous level!

[lily2003]

I had a low positive RF and a chart-topping anti-CCP, with same results when those tests got repeated. I had none of the classic swelling, but odd one-offs like a “popeye” elbow and a small pouch of swelling on a wrist — both of which lasted only a week or so and didn’t occur at the same time. My shoulders ached, but I’m not sure they even counted that. My ankle tendons seemed prone to light sprains. Some of my finger joints were very tender on various days, various weather, and the bottom of my feet felt tender now and then.

Got the diagnosis based on the elbow on the second rheumy visit (a year after the first when the tests were done). Subsequent x-rays confirmed erosions in some finger and toe joints, though, oddly, not the ones that bother me.

Have taken low to moderate MTX (currently 15 mg orally) since that diagnosis in September 2019 and everything I’ve listed above is gone except for occasional, fairly mild, finger joint tenderness. I thank my ankles every day for not spraining themselves! Proud of my shoulders.

I feel so “normal” in fact, that I am prone to musing, “Do I *really* have RA? Did that radiologist just have confirmation bias from being asked to see about erosions? I don’t see anything in this x-rays!”

As for your situation, seems very much like my first visit with the rheumy in 2018 — bad test results, but he didn’t see enough evidence to give me the diagnosis. One year later, sporting that bulge on my elbow, I went to an outdoor party on a warm summery day, and all I could think about was how much my hands hurt. When I have my doubts about having RA, I think about how different for the better my hands and body overall are now.

Maybe you’ll get more profound symptoms, but maybe you won’t. My rheumy did tell me that some seropositive people are outliers that don’t get RA. Statistically not many, but they do exist.