It was with much interest that we read the letter of Novikov et al on testing for antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCAs) in patients with ANCA-associated vasculitides (AAV) and other diseases. In their letter, the authors (1) share their experience with direct testing for proteinase-3 (PR3) ANCA and myeloperoxidase (MPO) ANCA and (2) raise some important issues regarding interpretation o...

Patients with rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis who are positive for anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) or anti-glomerular basement membrane (GBM) antibodies may develop chronic renal failure leading to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) within days or weeks. The early serologic detection of auto-antibodies associated with ANCA and anti-GBM diseases will be helpful in preventing ESRD....

OBJECTIVES To assess the diagnostic performance of 11 commercial PR3- and MPO-ANCA ELISA systems (direct, capture and high sensitive [hs] ELISA). METHODS Sera from 90 patients with AAV (GPA, MPA and CSS) and 20 disease controls (SLE; RA) and healthy individuals were tested for the presence of ANCA by IFT and by different ELISAs for the presence of PR3-and MPO-ANCA, respectively. Furthermore, ...

Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) is strongly associated with autoantibodies against myeloperoxidase (MPO) and proteinase 3 (PR3). No clear consensus has been reached on the pathogenicity of these autoantibodies. Animal models for MPO-ANCA, in vitro data suggesting pathogenicity of ANCA, and one case of a neonate showing symptoms of vasculitis after tra...

RATIONALE The relationship between antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) and ANCA-negative vasculitis has not been elucidated. PATIENT CONCERNS A 64-year-old female with edema and proteinuria was admitted. A kidney biopsy indicated focal proliferative nephritis with crescents in 25% of glomeruli. Serum ANCA was negative. Eighteen months later, systemic sym...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCA) in sera of patients with tuberculosis compared with healthy control subjects and a group of patients with atopic asthma. METHODS The presence of ANCA was examined in patients with tuberculosis, and in asthmatic patients and healthy subjects as control groups, by means of indirect immunofluorescence (IIF)...

Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) are traditionally detected by an indirect immunofluorescence technique. According to the international consensus on ANCA testing, ANCA should also be tested by antigen-specific tests for myeloperoxidase-ANCA and proteinase 3-ANCA. The direct noncompetitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) used to be the method of choice. Nowadays, these assa...

BACKGROUND Most positive antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) results are associated with non-vasculitic conditions, and guidelines have been proposed for the judicious use of this test. The outcome of applying similar guidelines in a routine laboratory is reported. METHODS All immunology requests (6500) over six months were selected, and those requesting ANCA were studied for the appro...

The strong relation between antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCA) and primary vasculitic syndromes suggests a pathophysiological role for ANCA. Experimental evidence for the pathogenic potential of ANCA has been derived from in vitro studies that demonstrate that ANCA can activate tumour necrosis factor alpha primed neutrophils, monocytes and/or endothelial cells. The binding of ANCA...