Mig,
Haven't seen anything either about SSZ/Remicade and antibodies. I was going to mention it after writing that those on SSZ in my study had to go on MTX in order to get Remicade, but then I forgot to. We have extensive registration of biologicals and their effects/side effects here, and the clinic I go to is one of the hospitals involved in collecting data from the whole country. If I remember it at the next visit, I could ask my rheumy.
It's a bit odd that you don't go for bloodwork often. I still go monthly (although part of the reason is that my disease activity was very high in the past and they wanted to keep an eye on it), and the first 6 weeks after starting Humira, I went every 2 weeks (although part of it was for research.When starting MTX or other regular DMARDs, you usually go every 2 weeks for the first 3-6 months, then monthly and possibly bimonthly. I have had at least monthly bloodwork during the almost 5 years I've been on DMARDS (SSZ, MTX, and the three anti-TNF's). On in-between visit bloodwork, they check my liver, kidneys, hemoglobin, white blood cells, platelets and CRP, and at rheumy visits they do that + ESR (sed rate) and 8 other vials I'm not sure what they do with. Some of it goes in their freezer for future research purposes.
Keep posted on what the rheumy says about Remicade/MTX,
Nina
