Elevated levels of anti‐Golgi antibodies: An early sign of seronegative rheumatoid arthritis

Anti‐Golgi antibodies are uncommon antibodies that exhibit specific, polarized cytoplasmic staining on the Hep‐2 substrate. The objective of our study was to identify the clinical and laboratory features associated with anti‐Golgi antibodies. We examined 4.5 years of data from a Turkish tertiary hospital in this retrospective cohort analysis. The indirect immunofluorescence staining patterns, antinuclear antibody (ANA) titres and clinical data of all patients were obtained from the hospital record system. A total of 146,055 ANAs were detected, of which 224 patients (0.15%) exhibited anti‐Golgi antibody staining. In total, 39.4% of diagnosed patients had autoimmune diseases (AIDs). Of the AIDs, 26 (46.4%) were rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This is a very high rate and another remarkable point is that 17 (65.3%) of these patients had seronegative RA. High‐titre results (1 ≥ 1/320) were more common in patients with AID. Anti‐Ro52 was prevalent in 50% of extractable nuclear antigen (ENA)‐positive patients, making it a remarkable finding. The majority of individuals with high‐titre anti‐Golgi antibodies had AID, particularly RA. The majority of these patients also tested negative for anti‐cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti‐CCP) and rheumatoid factor (RF). Finally, high‐titre anti‐Golgi antibodies may be an important serologic marker for seronegative RA in the Turkish population.