Methodology: Immunofluorescence microscopy. Primate tissue substrate. IgG specificity.

Indications: Antibodies against skin epidermal inter-cellular cement/desmosomes are found in all forms of pemphigus. Patients with pemphigus foliaceus have antibodies against desmoglein-1. Patients with pemphigus vulgaris have antibodies against desmoglein-1 and desmoglein-3. Patients with paraneoplastic pemphigus give atypical inter-cellular cement reaction patterns and have antibodies against desmoplakin I, desmoplakin II and BP230. Antibodies against skin epidermal basement membrane/hemi-desmosomes (BP180 and BP230) are found in 70% - 90% of patients with bullous pemphigoid and are also detected in patients with cicatricial pemphigoid.

Related tests: If skin antibodies are found to be positive upon screening then they will automatically be quantitated by titre.

N.B. Requests for autoantibodies should be selective and relevant to the clinical circumstances. There is rarely any merit in requesting a particular autoantibody if there is no clinical evidence of the disease(s) with which it is associated .

This test is currently being sent to referral laboratory (Sheffield) due to technical difficulties.

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