Markers of autoimmunity in bilharzial patients having proteinuria

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted to evaluate the presence of antinuclear [ANA], antimitochondrial [AMA], antismooth muscle [ASM] and more importantly antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies [ANCA] in bilharzial patients having albuminuria versus patients not having albuminuria. Thirty-one patients were included in the study as well as 10 control healthy subjects. 15 patients had hepatosplenic bilharziasis with albuminuria and 16 patients without albuminuria. The autoantibodies measured by immunofluorescence were significantly higher among patients having albuminuria versus control group. While in patients not having albuminuria, only the ANA showed significantly higher positive cases versus control group. When the 2 groups of patients were compared to each other, there was non significant difference in antibodies positivity except in total ANCA and perinuclear ANCA [P-ANCA] which were higher among patients having hepatosplenic schistosomiasis and microalbuminuria. From these findings, it can be concluded that ANCA, especially P-ANCA could be considered as a marker of early glomerulopathy in bilharzial patients