Mass spectrometry in IgG4-related disease diagnosis

Abstract

We compared liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) against Binding Site immunonephelometry (BSIN) with regards to these methods’ abilities to diagnose IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD). IgG subclasses were gathered from laboratory from December 2011 to December 2020. The IgG4-RD positive and negative patients were diagnosed according to the ACR/EULAR classification criteria by extensive chart review. Both methods’ results were compared in terms of test characteristics. For BSIN, there were 43 IgG4-RD positive cases and 174 disease negative cases, while for LC–MS/MS, there were 102 IgG4-RD positive cases and 562 disease negative cases. The majority of IgG4-RD patients by BSIN and LC–MS/MS had an elevated IgG4 level, 81% and 86%, respectively. For BSIN, the ROC curve, cut-off value of 1.25 g/L, had a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 84%. For LC–MS/MS, the ROC curve, cut-off value of 1.25 g/L, had a sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 84%. The responder index score to IgG4 level r-correlation value for BSIN and LC–MS/MS was 0.5 and 0.6, respectively. In our center, LC–MS/MS and BSIN are equivalent test methods in IgG4-RD diagnosis. IgG4 level does correlate with disease activity by the responder index. LC–MS/MS is a valid and equally reliable alternative to BSIN in the diagnosis of IgG4-related disease.