title: Anti-aquaporin-4 antibody positivity in neuromyelitis optica is associated with lesion activity.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the demographic, clinical and spinal cord MRI characteristics of clinically definite neuromyelitis optica (NMO) patients for association with anti-aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody positivity in Chinese patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  We recruited 72 consecutive patients with NMO. The clinical assessments, sera and spinal MRI scans were obtained within 1 week after the onset of symptoms of acute myelitis. The statistical significance of potential differences in demographic, clinical and spinal MRI lesion characteristics between the two groups (anti-AQP4 antibody positive vs. negative) was determined using the two-sample t test or Fisher's exact test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty-nine patients (49/72, 68.1%) were anti-AQP4 antibody positive and 23 patients (23/72, 31.9%) were anti-AQP4 antibody negative. The only characteristic that was significantly different between the groups was the presence of an enhancing spinal cord lesion (p < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found a strong association between serum anti-AQP4 antibody positivity and lesional gadolinium enhancement in patients with clinically definite NMO. These findings support prior evidence that anti-AQP4 antibody could be pathogenic in NMO lesion development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Yaou
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Yunyun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Zhuoqiong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Butzkueven
authors.forename: Kuncheng
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D051401:Aquaporin 4 / Q000276:immunology*; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D001324:Autoantigens / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D019084:Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009471:Neuromyelitis Optica / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology*; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: C496030:AQP4 protein, human; D051401:Aquaporin 4; D001323:Autoantibodies; D001324:Autoantigens