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. 1988 Apr;72(1):32–36.

Role of IgM-rheumatoid factor interference in the determination of total serum IgE and IgE-containing circulating immune complexes.

L S De Clerck 1, P L Gigase 1, C H Bridts 1, W J Stevens 1
PMCID: PMC1541509  PMID: 3396220

Abstract

IgM-rheumatoid factor (RF) interference in the determination of total serum IgE and IgE-containing circulating immune complexes (IgE-CIC) was studied by inhibition experiments in vitro comparing a new ELISA technique free of IgM-RF interference with more widely used RIA methods. It was shown that a considerable overestimation of the IgE content in CIC can exist when high levels of IgM-RF are present in the same serum. The clinical part of this study revealed a dramatic fall in prevalence of IgE-CIC in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with the ELISA technique, compared with the more conventional RIA method (respectively 1/20 compared to 12/20 positive for IgE-CIC). In these patients, there was a good correlation between the level of IgM-RF and the amount of IgE detected in the CIC by the RIA method (r = 0.87) whereas the RF-interference free ELISA method showed no correlation between these two parameters (r = 0.06). Total serum IgE determination with a solid phase RIA was also influenced by IgM-RF interference, whereas the PRIST method was not affected by the presence of IgM-RF. In conclusion, in patients with rheumatic diseases, IgE-assays using polyclonal rabbit or sheep anti-IgE antibodies are not appropriate and monoclonal anti-IgE antibodies that have been proved not to interfere with IgM-RF should be advocated.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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