Performance Characteristics of Different Anti-Double-Stranded DNA Antibody Assays in the Monitoring of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Objective. we sought to evaluate different anti-double-stranded dna assays for their performance characteristics in monitoring disease activity fluctuations in systemic lupus erythematosus (sle). methods. 36 active sle patients were followed monthly. at each study visit (total n=371),blood was collected and disease activity was scored using the selena-sledai (excluding anti-dsdna or complement components) and by a physician's global assessment (pga). four anti-dsdna tests were compared. linear mixed-effects models with random intercept and fixed slopes were used to evaluate the relationship between the longitudinal fluctuations of disease activity and anti-dsdna titers. results. at enrollment,positivity for quanta lite and high-avidity anti-dsdna assay was both 64% and significantly lower than anti-dsdna positivity by quanta flash (83%) and clift (96%). linear mixed-effects modeling indicated that the change in clinical selena-sledai scores was associated with the titers of all anti-dsdna with quanta flash yielding the highest marginal r2 (0.15; p<0.01). quanta flash was the only anti-dsdna assay significantly associated with the change in pga (marginal r2=0.05; p<0.01). conclusion. these data indicate that anti-dsdna antibodies determined by quanta flash have a value in monitoring sle disease activity. © 2017 michael mahler et al.