Alimentary TractComparative study of ASCA (Anti–Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibody) assays in inflammatory bowel disease☆,☆☆,★
Section snippets
Study population
Analyses were performed in a cohort of 200 unselected patients with IBD and 178 controls, using the different ASCA assays. The IBD patients included 100 patients with CD (57 female, 43 male; mean age, 38.5 years; age range, 15–78 years) and 100 with ulcerative colitis (UC; 46 female, 54 male; mean age, 40.6 years; age range, 18–73 years). The diagnosis was made according to the Lennard-Jones criteria,9 and all patients were carefully classified. Clinical characteristics are summarized in Table
Results
The range of ASCA titers and mean ASCA in CD varied substantially between the different assays. For the Prometheus Laboratories assay, mean ASCA IgA was 51.80 (±38.9; range, <12.5–121.3) and mean ASCA IgG was 80.6 (±70.0; range, <12.5–323.2). Using the Medipan assay, mean ASCA IgA was 1.51 (±2.0; range, 0.12–8.44) and ASCA IgG was 0.81 (±0.85; range, 0.08–3.3). The ASCA results from Lille ranged from 0.26 to 76.29, with a mean titer of 7.23 (±11.5). Inova mean ASCA IgA was 42.34 (±41.35; range,
Discussion
Antibodies against the yeast S. cerevisiae, a yeast commonly used in the food industry, are found in CD with a prevalence varying from 55% to 65%. The specificity for CD is higher, with reported figures of 80%–95%. However, data are still scarce and come from different research groups mostly using different assays. Nevertheless, several commercial companies recently developed an ASCA assay and promote its use in IBD clinical practice. The use of these tests involves an important financial
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the laboratories and companies that collaborated in this study by providing the ASCA kits: Dr. D. Poulain and Dr. B. Sendid (Laboratoire de Parasitologie-Mycologie, CHRU Lille, France), Prometheus Laboratories Inc. (San Diego, California), Medipan Diagnostica (Selchow, Germany) distributed by Euribel S.A./N.V. (Brussels, Belgium), and Inova Diagnostics (San Diego, California) distributed by Medigal S.A. (Villers-Poterie, Belgium).
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Supported by a grant of the Funds for Scientific Reasearch (FWO), Brussels, Belgium, and a grant by A. Lazzari. S Vermeire is an aspirant of the FWO Belgium.
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Address requests for reprints to: Paul Rutgeerts, M.D., Department of Gastroenterology, UZ Gasthuisberg, Herestraat 49, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. e-mail: [email protected]; fax: (32) 16-34-43-99.
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Drs. Vermeire and Joossens contributed equally to this work.