title: Low Prevalence of p-ANCA in Unaffected Relatives of Patients with Ulcerative Colitis from a Mediterranean Area.
abstract: : Antineutrophil-cytoplasmic-autoantibodies (p-ANCA) are strongly associated with ulcerative colitis (UC) and may represent an indicator of genetic susceptibility to UC. To further examine whether p-ANCA may serve as a genetic marker of UC we evaluated the frequency of p-ANCA in unaffected family members of UC from a defined geographic area. A total of 110 patients with UC and 90 unaffected family members (first- or second-degree relatives) were tested. Controls included: 58 Crohn's disease (CD) patients with 25 unaffected relatives and 52 irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients with 20 healthy family members. p-ANCA were detected by enzyme-linked immunoassay followed by immunofluorescence. p-ANCA were detected in 57 UC patients (51.8%). Six of 90 (6.6%) unaffected relatives were positive for p-ANCA and 4 of these were from two families. In 3 of 35 families the proband and at least one unaffected relative were p-ANCA-positive. In five families with more than one member affected by UC, p-ANCA were detected in 2 of 19 (10.5%) unaffected relatives. Six CD patients (10.3%) and one (1.9%) in the IBS group were positive for p-ANCA. One family member was positive in the CD family group and 1 was positive in the control family group. In the group of families recruited for this study, p-ANCA were not more frequent in unaffected relatives of UC patients than in controls, suggesting that at least in the geographic area considered for this study p-ANCA may not represent a definite subclinical marker of susceptibility for UC.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica, Unita' di Gastroenterologia, Universita' di R. Calabria, and *Ospedale Ciaccio, Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Monteleone
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Marasco
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Parrello
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Medici
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Giglio
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Doldo
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Luzza
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pallone