The investigation of autoimmune disorders

Abstract

During the last few years our knowledge of auto immune disease has increased considerably, and the techniques for detecting such disease have been improved and made simpler. The laboratory tests to detect humoral antibodies in patients suffering from an auto immune disorder have become routine in a number of hospitals and the use of techniques, and, in particular immunofluorescence techniques, have assumed greater importance. The purpose of this article is to outline the available immunopathological techniques and to illustrate how they are applied in the day to day investigation of patients in an acute general hospital. Reference is made to the results obtained from tests performed on 1000 consecutive patients suffering from a number of unrelated disorders, whereby it is hoped that these results will illustrate a number of facets common to autoimmune disease in general. From this study several important conclusions have been drawn and outlined. A careful assessment of the immunological status of patients suffering from a variety of disorders, using both humoral antibody techniques, as well as techniques that measure the cellular immunological potentials is essential in the proper evaluation of the immunological status of patients.