E. Cozzani et al., COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF INDIRECT IMMUNOFLUORESCENCE AND IMMUNOBLOTTING FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF AUTOIMMUNE PEMPHIGUS, Archives of dermatological research, 286(6), 1994, pp. 295-299
The diagnosis of pemphigus relies on immunopathological criteria inclu
ding the detection of circulating autoantibodies to desmosomal compone
nts. In the present work we compared the usefulness of immunoblotting
(IB) and indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) in the diagnosis of pemphig
us using monkey oesophagus (MO) and rabbit lip (RL) as epithelial subs
trates. Among 54 sera from patients with well-documented pemphigus (40
pemphigus vulgaris, PV, and 14 pemphigus foliaceus, PF), 46 (85%) pro
ved positive by IIF (46 on MO and 41 on RL) as compared with 44 (81.5%
) positive by IB. IIF and IB were equally sensitive (90%) for the diag
nosis of PV whereas IIF (on RL) was more sensitive (71%) than IB (57%)
for the detection of PF autoantibodies. However, when the two techniq
ues were considered in combination, the sensitivity of the detection o
f pemphigus autoantibodies rose to 94.5%. An IB study would therefore
be warranted in the presence of an (alleged) pemphigus serum that was
IIF-negative since approximately 10% of these were found to be positiv
e. Furthermore, the pattern of IB reactivity may assist in classificat
ion, since the 130- and the 160-kDa antigens seem specifically correla
ted with PV and PF, respectively.