Detection of autoantibodies and standardization of result report

Autoantibodies are very important for diagnosing autoimmune liver diseases.AMA and its M2 subtype antibody are one of the three diagnosis criteria for primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) .AMA is the early marker for the diagnosis but no correlation with prognosis and treatment.ANA may present special fluorescent pattern in patients with PBC, anti-sp100/ anti-gp210 have high specificity to PBC.Most patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) are only found non-specific autoantibodies, ANA or SMA are also positive in other liver diseases.AIH are divided into two types, anti-SLA shows high specificity for AIH and severe disease.Indirect immunofluorescence assay (IIF) , ELISA and immunoblotting are three major assays for autoantibody detection.ANA test procedure should be: samples are tested firstly by IIF, then if necessary, detected specific ANA profile further by ELISA or immunoblotting assay, quantitatively or semi-quantitatively.external quality assessment is one of important quality control measures.