Promoting the clinical research and standardization of neuroimmunological laboratory tests / 中华检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Neuroimmune diseases are a group of diseases in which the interaction between the nervous system and the immune system leads to structural damage and/or dysfunction in the nervous system. Timely diagnosis and appropriate immunological intervention can lead to a better cure for the patients and improving prognosis. The emerging neuro-immunological biomarkers including autoantibody profiles, lymphocyte subsets, cytokines and special proteins are important indicators for clinical diagnosis and monitoring of immune status. Currently, however, there are many difficulties in standardization of laboratory testing, disease diagnosis criteria, result interpretation, and mutual recognition among the laboratories, etc. There is an urgent to evaluate the clinical significance of these laboratory indicators correctly, to establish standardization of procedures (SOP) of testing, and to conduct quality control through inter-laboratory monitoring for guiding treatment strategies, monitoring efficacy, and evaluating prognosis. In this paper, neuroimmune tests are suggested to be divided into two categories conventional panel and research panel. The clinical significance, testing methods and technology of the two categories were discussed. The aim is to evoke mutual communication and cooperation between clinical departments and diagnostic laboratories, to promote the clinical research and standardization of laboratory testing, and to bring more benefits to patients with neuroimmunological diseases.