Current practice in laboratory diagnostics of autoimmune diseases in Croatia.  Survey of the Working group for laboratory diagnostics of autoimmune diseases of the Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine.
BACKGROUND
With the trend of increasing incidence of autoimmune diseases, laboratories are faced with exponential growth of the requests for tests relating the diagnosis of these diseases. Unfortunately, the lack of laboratory personnel experienced in this specific discipline of laboratory diagnostic, as well as an unawareness of a method limitation often results in confusion for clinicians. The aim was to gain insight into number and type of Croatian laboratories that perform humoral diagnostics with the final goal to improve and harmonize laboratory diagnostics of autoimmune diseases in Croatia.


METHODS
In order to get insight into current laboratory practice two questionnaires, consisting of 42 questions in total, were created. Surveys were conducted using SurveyMonkey application and were sent to 88 medical biochemistry laboratories in Croatia for the first survey. Out of 33 laboratories that declared to perform diagnostic from the scope, 19 were selected for the second survey based on the tests they pleaded to perform. The survey comprised questions regarding autoantibody hallmarks of systemic autoimmune diseases while regarding organ-specific autoimmune diseases was limited to diseases of liver, gastrointestinal and nervous system.


RESULTS
Response rate was high with 80 / 88 (91%) laboratories which answered the first questionnaire, and 19 / 19 (1.0) for the second questionnaire. Obtained results of surveys indicate high heterogeneity in the performance of autoantibody testing among laboratories in Croatia.


CONCLUSIONS
Results indicate the need of creating recommendations and algorithms in order to harmonize the approach to laboratory diagnostics of autoimmune diseases in Croatia.
Clinical Institute of Chemistry, Sestre milosrdnice University Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia.
Andrea Tešija
AT
Kuna
Clinical Department for Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Merkur University Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia.
Lovorka
L
Đerek
University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Department of Laboratory Diagnostics, Zagreb, Croatia.
Ana
A
Kozmar
Clinical Department of Laboratory Diagnostics, Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia.
Vedrana
V
Drvar
D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000592:standards*; D017523:Croatia; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007118:Immunoassay / Q000379:methods; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology; D012955:Societies, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D001323:Autoantibodies
autoantibodies; autoimmune diseases; survey