Liver Disease Diagnostics: Antibody-based Diagnosis of Autoimmune Liver Diseases

Liver Disease Diagnostics: Antibody-Based Diagnosis of Autoimmune Liver Disease

For the launch of our Liver-9-Line immunoblot test (to our press release “Liver Disease Diagnostics by Immunoblot” of May 16, 2011), I dug through a pile of literature on the topic of autoantibody-based diagnosis of autoimmune diseases of the liver. In the last week I picked it all up again and worked through it systematically.

The interior surface of the liver. A reproduction of a lithograph plate from Gray’s Anatomy.

The reason for my renewed interest is that we brought four more ELISA tests for liver diagnostics to the market two weeks ago. They are the Anti-LKM-1, Anti-SLA, Anti-gp210, and Anti-Sp100 tests, all designed for fully automated autoimmune diagnosis with our Alegria system. All four test systems assist the formulation of a diagnosis when autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) are suspected, or for differential diagnosis when another disorder of the liver is assumed.

Mobile Health Applications: Their Significance for Medical Education and Healthcare

Mobile Health Applications and Their Significance for Medical Education and Healthcare

As we here at ORGENTEC Diagnostika set about developing a smartphone application for our company in mid-September of this year, we had no idea what an exciting field we were entering.

We were also amazed when we began to intensively explore the iTunes App store and Android Market to see “what the others were up to”. We tried out many things, looked at a large variety of very different apps, and loaded our iPhones up with a broad range of apps.

The ORGENTEC Autoimmunity Guide: Three screenshots of our company's mobile medical app on autoimmunity, autoimmune disorders, and autoimmune diseases diagnostics. - © ORGENTEC Diagnostika, Mainz

We also researched a lot of technical details, reading this blog and that. We learned a great deal about the market shares of the individual mobile operating systems (“Who is winning the race for domination on the mobile operating system market in which corner of the world? Apple’s iOS or the Android OS? Blackberry’s RIM or Windows Phone 7?”). We thus also had to involve ourselves to some extent in some “religious wars” (“iPhone or Android device?” – … there’s no question, is there?).

Welcome to the ACPA Club

Anti-CCP hs (high sensitive)^®: a new biomarker for the serological diagnosis of early rheumatoid arthritis

Timely diagnosis is of critical importance to the progression of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) because the rapid implementation of intensive treatment can inhibit damage to the joints and maintain function. In conjunction with medical history, clinical examination, and imaging procedures, serological tests form the foundation for an early diagnosis.

In addition to rheumatoid factors, autoantibodies against citrullinated antigens (ACPA) have proven to be valuable tools for the serological diagnosis of early RA. They have become a critical component of the new 2010 ACR criteria for the classification of RA, and account for three of the six points required to verify a diagnosis of RA.

A short History of Indirect Immunofluorescence Technology

The GRÜNER CLUB AUTOIMMUN blog featured a fine post about the history of indirect immunofluorescence. In that article my Austrian colleague Barbara Fabian, community manager of GRÜNER CLUB AUTOIMMUN, described in great detail how indirect immunofluorescence technology, or: IFT, and also referred to as IIF assay,  has become an indispensible tool of autoimmune disease diagnostics over the last two decades, and how IFT has become a standard laboratory technique used in serological autoimmune diagnostics.

Without further ado I have translated Barbara’s post in order to make you this text, and especially the interesting images, available. – Here it is:

The Development of Indirect Immunofluorescence Technology (IFT)

by Barbara Fabian, MSc, Community Manager of GRÜNER CLUB AUTOIMMUN

Over the last 20 years, the detection of autoantibodies has developed into an indispensible component of autoimmune diagnostics. Along with serological and clinical data, autoimmune status has become an important building block in the formation of diagnoses.

Why Are Autoimmune Diseases More Common in Women than Men?

No matter if it’s rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), or multiple sclerosis (MS): most autoimmune diseases affect women significantly more often than men. It is possible that this could be at least partially explained by the occurrence of age-associated B cells (ABCs), as described in an article recently published in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology.