title: Anti-aquaporin-4 antibody in Chinese patients with central nervous system inflammatory demyelinating disorders.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine seroprevalence of aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody in Chinese patients with central nervous system (CNS) inflammatory demyelinating disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  AQP4 antibody was detected by anti-AQP4 antibody assay. We measured seroprevalence in 200 patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO, n=44), multiple sclerosis (MS, n=46), transverse myelitis (TM, n=44), optic neuritis (ON, n=13), acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM, n=2), and other neurological diseases (OND, n=51).
  
  
  RESULTS
  AQP4 antibody seropositivity was 88.6% in patients with NMO, 4.3% in patients with MS, 30.8% in patients with ON and 51.7% in patients with LETM (longitudinally extensive TM). No patients with acute partial TM, ADEM, OND were positive for AQP4 antibody. Sensitivity of the test was 88.6% (95% CI 80-95) in patients with NMO. Specificity is 97.9% (95% CI 95.1-100) in 46 MS patients, with 51 OND patients as the control group. If the patients with recurrent ON, LETM were considered high risk for NMO (n=37) and the remaining patients (n=119) were considered controls, the sensitivity of this assay would be 48.6% (95% CI 33.4-64.1) and the specificity 97.5% (95% CI 94.7-100).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study confirms that AQP4 antibody is a sensitive and specific biomarker for discrimination between NMO and other CNS autoimmune diseases.
authors: Department of Neurology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou 510630, Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China.
authors: Youming
authors: Y
authors: Long
authors: Wei
authors: W
authors: Qiu
authors: Xueqiang
authors: X
authors: Hu
authors: Fuhua
authors: F
authors: Peng
authors: Zhengqi
authors: Z
authors: Lu
authors: Yuge
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: Yu
authors: Y
authors: Yang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D051401:Aquaporin 4 / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D044466:Asian People; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D003711:Demyelinating Diseases / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: C496030:AQP4 protein, human; D051401:Aquaporin 4; D001323:Autoantibodies