아세틸콜린 수용체 항체(Acetylcholine receptor autoantibody) 검사의 의의

The Significance of Acetylcholine Receptor Autoantibody Test

Purpose: Acetylcholine receptor antibodies cause acetylcholine receptor loss, which is responsible for failure of the neuromuscular junction in the acetylcholine receptor autoantibody. The disease characterized by muscle weakness and fatigue, myasthenia gravis(MG) occurs when the body inappropriately produces antibodies against acetylcholine receptors, and thus inhibits proper acetylcholine signal transmission. And this reason, the measurement of acetylcholine receptor antibodies can be of considerable value in disease diagnosis. Methods: From 2010. August to September, we tested orderd AchRAb 19 samples to get the results. 1. Pipette 5 ㎕ undiluted patient sera and kit control and add 125I AChR 50 ㎕ and incubate at R.T for 2 hours. 2. Pipette 50 ㎕ of anti-human IgG into each tube, and incubate at 2~8℃ for 2 hours. 3. Pipette 25㎕ precipitation enhancer into each tube and add 1mL washing solution into all tubes. 4. Centrifuge each tube for 20minutes at 2~8℃ at 1500g. 5. Aspirate or decant the supernatant. 6. Pipette 1 mL washing solution into all tubes and resuspend the pellet and repeat centrifugation. 7. Aspirate or decant the supernatant and count all tubes on a gamma counter. Results: Cut off value is 0.2 nmol/L and the results taken below 0.2 nmol/L are negative, the results above that identified as being positive values. We assayed the 19 patients samples and got 7 positive results. Of which, 6 patients were diagnosed as MG.(85.7%). Conclusions: Acetylcholine Receptor autoantibody test is intended for use by persons only for the quantitative determination of it in human serum. Even if measurement of the antibodies is not a routine test, it can be of considerable value in disease diagnosis.