Abstract
Four different assay systems for detection of antithyroglobulin (T-Ab) and thyroid antimicrosomal autoantibodies (M-Ab) were evaluated: two passive haemagglutination assays (PHA), an enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) and a radioligand assay (RLA). Antibody levels measured with these methods correlated well (T-Ab: r = 0.72 to 0.88; M-Ab: r = 0.63 to 0.84; p < 0.0001). However, when the results of the measured samples were classified as normal, slightly elevated and pathological, only 40–50% of the samples showed congruous results in all tests; 60–70% agreed in PHA and ELISA, whereas 80 to 90% corresponded in the two PHAs. RLA and ELISA gave more frequently positive results for T-Ab and negative results for M-Ab than the PHAs. Despite the lower sensitivity of the quantitative methods for M-Ab detection, they depicted more readily small changes after thyroxine treatment than the PHAs. We suggest that differences in autoantibody levels found with different methods may be due to autoantibody heterogeneity.
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