Diagnostic yield of commercial immunodots to....

Indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) on rat brain slices is the preferred screening test for identification of onconeural antibodies, but the result should be confirmed by a second technique, either Western blot or cell-based assays (CBAs). These techniques have been developed mainly in research laboratories and are not available for routine analysis. However, 2 commercial immunodot assays are currently marketed

These immunodot assays present the advantage to be easily and quickly performed as they are fully automated; they also screen several antibodies at the same time. However, very little is known about the reliability of these immunodot assays, as only a few published studies have analyzed the sensitivity for the detection of anti-CV2/CRMP5 antibodies and the sensitivity and specificity for anti-Ma2 antibodies,and anti-SOX1 antibodies.

They studied the diagnostic yield of 2 commercial immunodots by investigating the proportion of positive results confirmed by alternative techniques, taking also into account the clinical information when it was available.

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