title: Clinical use of serological tests for antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies. What do the studies say?
abstract: Trustworthy and clinically useful laboratory test results depend on high quality laboratory knowledge and performance and on close collaboration with experienced clinicians. Just like a diagnosis can only be made by contrasting it to a number of differential diagnoses, a prototype autoantibody profile can only be recognized if autoantibodies that partially mimic the former are just as well-known. In antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated small vessel vasculitides the characteristic autoantibody profile can only be demonstrated by use of at least two different methodologies and an assay-specific cut-off selection that clearly distinguishes between strongly positive and disease control low positive to negative values. Local serum banks containing samples from patients with well-characterized chronic immunoinflammatory diseases and ANCA-associated vasculitides are needed for such important studies whether in-house or commercial assays are used.
authors.affiliation: Department of Autoimmunology, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark. aw@ssi.dk
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Wiik
mesh_terms: D019268:Antibodies, Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic / Q000097:blood*; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D012698:Serologic Tests; D014657:Vasculitis / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*
chemical_list: D019268:Antibodies, Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic