Rheumatoid Arthritis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Rheumatoid Arthritis, including details on treatment, symptoms, causes, medication.

Indirect immunofluorescent assay for antinuclear antibodies on McCoy-Plovdiv serum-free cell line substrate.

Zagorov MY, Draganov MM, Alimanska SA, Staykova ND, Stefanov RS, Trayancheva M, Kuzmanova SI, Murdjeva MA

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical University-Plovdiv, 15A Vassil Aprilov Street, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Indirect immunofluorescent assay for antinuclear antibodies (IIFA-ANA) on HEp-2 cell substrate is a widely used test for diagnosis of connective tissue diseases. Recently, serum-free fibroblast cell line McCoy-Plovdiv has been developed to provide an alternative substrate. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of IIFA-ANA on McCoy-Plovdiv cell substrate for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and compare it with that of the standard HEp-2 cell substrate. Sera from 72 patients with RA and 23 patients with SLE were tested with IIFA-ANA on both substrates. The control group consisted of 100 sera from healthy individuals. The agreement (Cohen's kappa) and the diagnostic performance (ROC analysis) of both methods were evaluated. IIFA-ANA on McCoy-Plovdiv cells proved to be comparable with the standard IIFA-ANA on HEp-2 cell substrate.

Published 19 March 2007 in Comp Immunol Microbiol Infect Dis, 30(3): 153-62.
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