ANA IIF: Minimizing Errors to Maximize Diagnostic Impact
The antinuclear antibody (ANA) test is a standard screening assay for detecting antibodies in patient with an autoimmune or ANA associated rheumatic disease (AARD). The gold standard method for testing for ANA is still the indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) assay on human epidermoid laryngeal carcinoma cells (HEp-2 cells).
The detection and reporting of ANAs in clinical laboratories has undergone a substantial transformation thanks to image-based computer algorithms. As a result, there were fewer and fewer laboratorians with the knowledge and skill to perform ANA IIF testing.
Although performing IIF test is labor intensive, subjective and prone to reader bias. It is the responsibility of the laboratory to evaluate and control all variables having a potential impact on the total testing process.
For twelve years, I have been reporting ANA IIF. I've been learning since today and always improvising. In the meantime, ANA IIF taught us a lot. These checkpoints can be used in the lab to reduce errors and increase the diagnostic impact of the gold standard test.
References
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Dr Kinjal Patel
Medical Microbiologist with an aptitude for holistic wellness and serving community with so far acquired knowledge. A dedicated reader in pursuit of improving human lives by transforming laboratory medicine and sharing pearls of medicine. Her life's mantra is "do what you love or love what you do".
