title: Anti-aquaporin-4 antibodies in the context of assorted immune-mediated diseases.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Anti-aquaporin 4 antibodies are specific markers for Devic's disease. This study aimed to test if this high specificity holds in the context of a large spectrum of systemic autoimmune and non-autoimmune diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  Anti-aquaporin-4 antibodies (NMO-IgG) were determined by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) on mouse cerebellum in 673 samples, as follows: group I (clinically defined Devic's disease, n=47); group II [inflammatory/demyelinating central nervous system (CNS) diseases, n=41]; group III (systemic and organ-specific autoimmune diseases, n=250); group IV (chronic or acute viral diseases, n=35); and group V (randomly selected samples from a general clinical laboratory, n=300).
  
  
  RESULTS
  MNO-IgG was present in 40/47 patients with classic Devic's disease (85.1% sensitivity) and in 13/22 (59.1%) patients with disorders related to Devic's disease. The latter 13 positive samples had diagnosis of longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis (n=10) and isolated idiopathic optic neuritis (n=3). One patient with multiple sclerosis and none of the remaining 602 samples with autoimmune and miscellaneous diseases presented NMO-IgG (99.8% specificity). The autoimmune disease subset included five systemic lupus erythematosus individuals with isolated or combined optic neuritis and myelitis and four primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS) patients with cranial/peripheral neuropathy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The available data clearly point to the high specificity of anti-aquaporin-4 antibodies for Devic's disease and related syndromes also in the context of miscellaneous non-neurologic autoimmune and non-autoimmune disorders.
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Division, Fleury Group, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dellavance
authors.forename: R R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Alvarenga
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kok
authors.forename: A W S
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: de Souza
authors.forename: L E C
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Andrade
mesh_terms: D051401:Aquaporin 4 / Q000276:immunology*; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000276:immunology*; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009471:Neuromyelitis Optica / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D051401:Aquaporin 4; D001323:Autoantibodies