Thyroid autoantibodies [haemagglutination versus indirect immunofluorescence] in thyrotoxicosis

The present study was conducted on 50 patients, 25 with Graves' disease [GD] and 25 with toxic nodular goitre [TNG. Twenty five normal subjects with comparable age and sex served as control group. Patients were diagnosed clinically and by estimation of thyroid hormones [T3, T4 and TSH]. Detection of antithyroglobulin [anti-Tg and antimicrosomal [anti-M] antibodies by both haemagglutination [HA] and indirect immunoflorescence [IIF] techniques was done for patients and controls. Results showed that anti-M antibodies were detected in 92% of patients with GD by IIF and in 72% by HA. Whereas, anti-Tg antibodies were detected in 72% and 56% respectively. Sensitivity of HA was found to be higher than IIF in detection of anti-Tg antibodies, but anti-M antibodies showed higher sensitivity for their detection by IIF. Specificity of IIF was 100% and of HA was 96% for anti-Tg and 92% for anti-M antibodies. It was concluded that detection of both anti-M and anti-Tg antibodies provide a more sensitive index of thyroid autoimmunity. However, if a single antibody has to be used for screening, the preference should be anti-M antibodies. Also it was found that IIF showed higher specificity, thus, it is recommended to be used for confirmation after screening with HA

Serum, intestinal and faecal IgA in giardiasis

The subjects of this study comprised 20 unselected patients with giardiasis and 15 adults suffering from mild bowel upset but with no evidence of any infection were taken as the control group. All patients and controls were subjected to estimation of serum, intestinal and faecal IgA. Levels of serum IgA of the patients were modestly but not significantly higher than that of the control group. Whereas the intestinal and faecal IgA were found to be significantly increased at the 5% level when compared to the control group. This increase could be due to the local formation of IgA by the duodeno-jejunal mucosa