TNF and rheumatoid arthritis: We did observe higher TNF-α levels in the plasma of patients with RA (median 87.8 pg/ml, IQR 57.8–126.4)than in controls (median 75.0 pg/ml, IQR 51.4–88.9) (P<0.05) and increased levels of PAF (RA 33.4±1.7 ng/ml vs controls 27.9±1.4 ng/ml; P<0.05) (data not shown).