Concordance between radioimmunoassay and fixed cell-based assay in subjects without myasthenia gravis: optimizing the diagnostic approach.
Eur J Neurol
; : e16435, 2024 Aug 08.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39118440
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:
Acetylcholine receptor antibody (AChR-Ab) detection is crucial in myasthenia gravis (MG) diagnosis and, currently, the radioimmunoassay (RIA) is the gold standard. However, RIA may detect AChR-Ab against nonpathogenic intracellular epitopes. In this study, we performed fixed cell-based assay (F-CBA) in RIA-AChR-Ab positive subjects without MG symptoms, to assess whether F-CBA could show a higher specificity compared to RIA in detecting pathogenic Abs.METHODS:
We reviewed medical records of patients referred to our MG outpatient clinic because of RIA-AChR-Ab detection. MG diagnosis was based on clinical examination, electrophysiology and Ab detection. AChR-Abs were tested by RIA in the whole cohort. Serum samples from RIA-positive asymptomatic subjects were retested by F-CBA.RESULTS:
Of 605 subjects who tested RIA-AChR-Ab positive, MG diagnosis was confirmed in 599. Six subjects were RIA-AChR-Ab positive although they had never had MG symptoms; in four of these subjects AChR-Abs were not detected by F-CBA, whereas the remaining two (both non-MG thymoma cases) were positive also by F-CBA.CONCLUSIONS:
RIA false positivity for AChR-Ab is very rare. Previous literature has demonstrated that F-CBA has higher sensitivity than RIA for MG, especially in ocular cases. Our preliminary results show that, in rare instances, F-CBA may be more specific than RIA for MG diagnosis.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Eur J Neurol
/
Eur. j. neurol
/
European journal of neurology
Journal subject:
NEUROLOGIA
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Italia
Country of publication:
Reino Unido