title: Sensitivity of the Phadia EliA connective tissue disease screen for less common disease-specific autoantibodies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the sensitivity of a commercial autoantibody screening method (Phadia EliA connective tissue disease (CTD) screen) for the detection of less common antibody specificities associated with connective tissue disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  399 sera positive for anti-PM/Scl (n=102), anti-RNA polymerase III (n=199), anti-fibrillarin (n=50), anti-Mi-2 (n=12), anti-proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) (n=13) and anti-ribosomal P (n=23) were analysed using the solid phase assay. Each well was coated with the respective antigens for these autoantibodies and also with the antigens Ro, La, Jo-1, Scl-70, CENP-B, U1-RNP, Sm and native DNA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All the anti-ribosomal P, anti-PCNA and anti-Mi-2 sera and 94% of the anti-PM/Scl sera were positive. For anti-fibrillarin, 36 (68%) were positive and 12 (22%) were equivocal. For anti-RNA polymerase III, 131 (67%) were positive, 23 (11%) were equivocal and 45 (22%) were negative.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The sensitivity of the Phadia EliA CTD screen is currently insufficient for the assay to be used as a screening test for anti-fibrillarin and anti-RNA polymerase III, but appears to be satisfactory for the other autoantibodies tested.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Immunology, Royal Free Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: Jennifer C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: Christopher C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Bunn
mesh_terms: D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D001324:Autoantigens / Q000276:immunology; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D003240:Connective Tissue Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D001324:Autoantigens