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European attempts for the standardisation of the antiphospholipid antibodiesUnit of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Spedali Civili and University of Brescia, Italytincani{at}bresciareumatologia.it
Unit of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Spedali Civili and University of Brescia, Italy
Unit of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Spedali Civili and University of Brescia, Italy
Department of Hematology, Ospedali Riuniti, Bergamo, Italy
Department of Internal Medicine, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano and University of Milan, Italy According to the Sydney criteria, antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) diagnosis is closely related to the demonstration of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) in patients sera. For this purpose, three different assays are conventionally accepted: lupus anticoagulant (LA), anticardiolipin (aCL) and anti-β2 glycoprotein I (β2GPI) antibodies. LA, described in the 1950s is a coagulation-based functional assay, which indirectly detects the presence of aPL. The aCL ELISA was developed in 1985; the identification of β2GPI as a major target of aPL, allowed the introduction of anti-β2GPI ELISA. Even if the diagnostic criteria for APS have been well defined, the laboratory detection of aPL is not always reproducible for many reasons. To achieve a univocal diagnostic definition of APS, efforts were made to reduce the inter- and/or intra-laboratory variability of the diagnostic tests. In this article, we analyse the studies performed to standardise aPL assays that were developed within the European Forum on Antiphospholipid Antibodies.
Key Words: anticardiolipin antibodies • antiphospholipid antibodies • anti-β2 glycoprotein I • European Forum on Antiphospholipid Antibodies • lupus anticoagulant • standardisation
Lupus, Vol. 18, No. 10,
913-919 (2009) This article has been cited by other articles:
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