Micromeritic procedures in assessing antinuclear antibody patterns in immunofluorescent assay.

Aim: The aim of this study was to introduce a micromeritic procedure (a statistical approach for small objects) in indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) to find objective quantitative parameters of antinuclear antibody (ANA) patterns which could support a diagnosis of auto-immune diseases.

Materials And Methods: Sera of patients with systemic autoimmune diseases, McCoy-Plovdiv serum-free cell line, goat anti-human immunoglobulin-G FITC-conjugate, fluorescent microscope, computer-assisted digital image processing, analysis using a micromeritic procedure, ANOVA.

Results: Three ANA fluorescent patterns (homogeneous, rim and speckled) were analyzed by the micromeritic procedure.