The Use of Auto-Antibody Testing in the Evaluation of Interstitial Lung Disease: A Practical Approach for the Pulmonologist
February 2016
in “
Respiratory Medicine
”
TLDR Auto-antibody testing is a useful but not definitive tool in diagnosing interstitial lung diseases, and using a specific algorithm could make testing more cost-effective.
The document from March 31, 2016, discussed the use of auto-antibody testing in the evaluation of interstitial lung diseases (ILD). The authors proposed a diagnostic algorithm for pulmonologists dealing with ILD patients, aiming to provide a pragmatic and clinically oriented approach for serological testing in patients with ILD of unknown origin. They emphasized that autoantibodies are fundamental diagnostic tools, but their results do not definitively prove or disprove a disease. The document also highlighted the prevalence of ILD in various diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, inflammatory myositis, and undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD). The authors suggested that the use of this algorithm could reduce the number of second-level tests and increase cost-effectiveness in laboratory testing. However, they acknowledged that this consensus approach required further validation in everyday practice.
