title: Incidence and titres of smooth-muscle antibodies in human sera.
abstract: By means of the indirect immunofluorescence method smooth-muscle antibodies (SMA) were determined in 182 patients with various diseases and the findings were compared with those of 7 patients with chronic active hepatitis (CAH) and 580 normal controls. IgG-SMA were found in 85.7% of the patients with CAH, titres above 80 occurred only in Hepatitis B-associated antigen (HBAg)-negative CAH, but IgG-SMA in low titres were also found with increased incidence in syphilis (16.7%) and in infections of the central nervous system (19%). In other diseases (Sjøgren's syndrome, ulcerative colitis, regional enteritis, myasthenia gravis, progressive muscular dystrophy, atopic dermatitis and mycoplasma pneumoniae infection) the prevalence did not differ from that of controls (3.6%). IgM-SMA were found more often in CAH (28.6%), in infections of the central nervous system (14.3%) and in the mycoplasma pneumoniae infections (13%) than in controls (2.6%), but titres above 20 occurred only in controls. IgA-SMA were detected only in a patient with syphilis. Demonstration of IgG-SMA titres above 80 seems to support the diagnosis of HBAg-negative CAH, while the demonstration of IgA- and IgM-SMA seems to be without diagnostic value in chronic hepatitis.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000032:analysis; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003876:Dermatitis, Atopic / Q000276:immunology; D004751:Enteritis / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006505:Hepatitis / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007070:Immunoglobulin A / Q000032:analysis; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000032:analysis; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000032:analysis; D007223:Infant; D007239:Infections / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009130:Muscle, Smooth / Q000276:immunology*; D009468:Neuromuscular Diseases / Q000276:immunology; D012859:Sjogren's Syndrome / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D007070:Immunoglobulin A; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M