[Connective tissue diseases and HEp-2 antinuclear antibodies]. / Connettiviti e anticorpi antinucleari HEp-2.

Some characteristics of antinuclear antibodies that might be of use for diagnostic and/or prognostic purposed were studied using indirect immunofluorescence on HEp-2 cells in 55 cases of various types of connective tissue disease. For each nuclear (homogeneous, speckled, granular, dotted, pulverulent and centromeric) and nucleolar fluorescence pattern (homogeneous, conglutinated and dotted), the following parameters were observed; C3 fixing capacity, degree of antibody affinity and sensitivity to RNAse, DNAse and trypsin. The results were very interesting, especially in relation to the diagnosis of progressive systemic sclerosis and of the related subsets, but were insufficient for reliable, conclusive prognostic evaluation.

[Serological diagnosis of systemic connective tissue inflammation; a new immunofluorescence method for demonstrating antinuclear antibodies]. / La diagnosi sierologica delle connettiviti sistemiche; un nuovo metodo d'immunofluorescenza per la dimostrazione di anticorpi antinucleari.

Two methods for the demonstration of antinuclear antibodies by means of indirect immunofluorescence were employed on 83 serum samples from 80 patients, with rat liver as the substrate. The first method (the classic ANA-test) uses cryostatic slices fixed in acetone; the second (ANA-Bp-test) is based on fixation of the substrate with Bouin's fluid and embedding in paraffin. The series was composed of 25 cases of lupus erythematosus (28 serum samples), 10 of rheumatoid arthritis, 1 of dermatomyositis, 8 of progressive systemic sclerosis, 4 of unclassifiable systemic connective tissues diseases, and 28 various internal and rheumatological forms. The undiluted sera that proved positive were subsequently tested for Ig typing and ANA titration. The ANA-Bp-test was found to be more sensitive, safer, more practical and less expensive than the ANA-test.