Prevalence of IgG autoantibody against F-actin in patients suspected of having autoimmune or acute viral hepatitis
✍ Scribed by Troy D. Jaskowski; Eric Q. Konnick; Edward R. Ashwood; Christine M. Litwin; Harry R. Hill
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2007
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 124 KB
- Volume
- 21
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0887-8013
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Our objectives in this study were to compare results obtained by an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for F-actin antibody (FAA) immunoglobulin G (IgG) to those determined by an indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) assay for smooth muscle antibody (SMA) IgG, and to determine the prevalence of FAA in patient sera having serologic evidence of acute viral hepatitis. Sera from 415 patients suspected of having autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), 208 patients suspected of having acute viral hepatitis A, B, or C, and 100 healthy blood donors (HBD) were included in the study. Only one of 100 HBD showed low levels (20-30 Units) of F-actin IgG. In patients suspected of having AIH, the prevalence of FAA increased as SMA titers increased and all sera with SMA titers of Z1:160 were FAApositive. In contrast, there were many sera with negative (o1:20) or low (1:20-1:40) SMA titers that contained moderate to high levels (430 Units) of FAA; many exceeding 80 Units. Moreover, 51.4% of these sera were also positive for anti-nuclear antibody (ANA), which is also utilized in diagnosing type 1 AIH. FAA was detected in 25% of viral hepatitis antibody-positive sera, with the majority (59.3%) containing low levels, and all were ANA-negative.