Inhibitory anti ADAMTS13 antibodies with a new rapid fully automated CLiA assay.

Background: Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a life-threatening disorder characterized by severe ADAMTS13 deficiency. The acquired form is associated with autoantibodies directed against ADAMTS13. Both noninhibitory and inhibitory autoantibodies can be detected by ELISA assay, while only inhibitory autoantibodies are detected by Bethesda assay. Due to its short TAT and good performance, chemiluminescence (CliA) ADAMTS13 activity (HemosIL Acustar) has proven to be a good choice in the diagnosis of TTP in emergency settings. Aim of this study was to analyse the performance of the CliA ADAMTS13 activity assay in detecting inhibitory ADAMTS13 antibodies using the Bethesda assay.

Methods: A method comparison study was performed on 69 stored samples: 11 acute TTPs, 38 TTP follow-ups, 5 TTP relapses, 1 congenital TTP, 10 HUS, 4 suspected TTPs. We retrieved the results of tests previously run in ELISA for both activity and autoantibodies. At the same time, we reran new tests including ELISA and CliA activity, ELISA autoantibodies, and ELISA and CliA Bethesda assays on thawed frozen samples.

Results: Very good correlation was observed between ELISA and CliA activity assay results (r = 0.96) and between archived ELISA and CliA activity results (r = 0.93). Agreement between the anti-ADAMTS13 assays ranged from good (k = 0.63) to very good (k = 0.92).

Conclusions: CliA and ELISA Bethesda assays showed very good agreement with samples run at the same time using ELISA ADAMTS13-autoantibody assay. Albeit more expensive, the CliA Bethesda assay identified inhibitory anti-ADAMTS13 within almost the same TAT as ELISA, but with better automation and limited operator involvement.