Use of recombinant pemphigus vulgaris antigen in development of ELISA and IB assays to detect pemphigus vulgaris autoantibodies.

Aim/objective: The objectives of this study are: (1) to measure the titers of pemphigus vulgaris (PV) autoantibody in the sera of patients with active disease, using three different assays: (a) Indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) using monkey esophagus as a substrate, (b) immunoblot (IB) and, (c) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using recombinant PV antigen (rPVA). (2) To compare the sensitivity of these three assays.

Background: The titer of PV autoantibodies and disease severity and extent do not always correlate.

Oral pemphigoid. Subset of cicatricial pemphigoid?

Objective: Cicatricial pemphigoid (CP) is an autoimmune blistering disease characterized by anti-basement membrane zone (BMZ) antibodies with a varied heterogeneous clinical spectrum. We sought to characterize a subset of patients with disease limited to the oral cavity.

Study Design: Twenty-nine random patients with vesiculobullous disease limited to the oral cavity were studied.

A scan statistic with a variable window.

Given N points or events occurring according to some probability distribution in the unit interval (0, 1), the simple scan statistic is defined to be the maximum number of points in any sub-interval of length d. In many areas, as in epidemiology, it is used to test the null hypothesis that the events are random, against the alternative that they cluster within some window of fixed width d. Since d must be chosen without snooping at the data, the test restricts the alternative to clusters of a fixed size.

Childhood leukaemia in Sweden: using GIS and a spatial scan statistic for cluster detection.

The study of disease clustering is becoming increasingly common in the field of medical epidemiology. There is great public concern and numerous reports on perceived clusters of various diseases, and with cancers, and especially leukaemia, being the most commonly studied. We present a population based study on acute childhood leukaemia in Sweden 1973-1993, illustrating the possibility of a system for full-scale spatial epidemiological study design.

Correlation of peptide specificity and IgG subclass with pathogenic and nonpathogenic autoantibodies in pemphigus vulgaris: a model for autoimmunity.

Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is a rare, potentially fatal, autoimmune disease that affects the skin and mucous membranes. The PV antigen (PVA) has been characterized as desmoglein 3. PV patients carry HLA-DR4- or HLA-DR6-bearing extended haplotypes.

Spatial disease clusters: detection and inference.

We present a new method of detection and inference for spatial clusters of a disease. To avoid ad hoc procedures to test for clustering, we have a clearly defined alternative hypothesis and our test statistic is based on the likelihood ratio. The proposed test can detect clusters of any size, located anywhere in the study region.

Antibodies to the 70-kDa heat-shock protein in patients with thermal burns.

Autoantibodies in the sera of patients with thermal burns, which bind to a protein in the intercellular substance of the epidermis, have been previously described. By immunoblot analysis, we have shown that a 68-kDa epidermal protein is the predominant antigen to which these autoantibodies bind. Our study also demonstrates that this 68-kDa epidermal protein is similar to the bovine brain 70-kDa heat-shock protein (hsp 70).