Institute of Bio- and Translational Medicine, Department of Immunology, University of Tartu, Ravila 19, Tartu 50411, Estonia.
Competence Center on Health Technologies, Tiigi 61b, Tartu 50410, Estonia.
Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 28;7:44846. doi: 10.1038/srep44846.
The presence of autoantibodies usually precedes autoimmune disease, but is sometimes considered an incidental finding with no clinical relevance. The prevalence of immune-mediated diseases was studied in a group of individuals from the Estonian Genome Project (n = 51,862), and 6 clinically significant autoantibodies were detected in a subgroup of 994 (auto)immune-mediated disease-free individuals. The overall prevalence of individuals with immune-mediated diseases in the primary cohort was 30.1%. Similarly, 23.6% of the participants in the disease-free subgroup were seropositive for at least one autoantibody. Several phenotypic parameters were associated with autoantibodies. The results suggest that (i) immune-mediated diseases are diagnosed in nearly one-third of a random European population, (ii) 6 common autoantibodies are detectable in almost one-third of individuals without diagnosed autoimmune diseases, (iii) tissue non-specific autoantibodies, especially at high levels, may reflect preclinical disease in symptom-free individuals, and (iv) the incidental positivity of anti-TPO in men with positive familial anamnesis of maternal autoimmune disease deserves further medical attention. These results encourage physicians to evaluate autoantibodies in addition to treating a variety of patient health complaints to detect autoimmune-mediated disease early.
自身抗体的存在通常先于自身免疫性疾病，但有时被认为是一种无临床意义的偶然发现。在爱沙尼亚基因组计划的一组个体（n=51862）中研究了免疫介导性疾病的患病率，并在 994 名（自身）免疫介导性疾病无个体的亚组中检测到 6 种临床显著的自身抗体。在初级队列中，患有免疫介导性疾病的个体的总体患病率为 30.1%。同样，在无疾病亚组中，有 23.6%的参与者至少有一种自身抗体呈阳性。几个表型参数与自身抗体有关。结果表明：（i）在随机欧洲人群中，近三分之一被诊断患有免疫介导性疾病；（ii）在未诊断出自身免疫性疾病的个体中，几乎有三分之一可检测到 6 种常见的自身抗体；（iii）组织非特异性自身抗体，特别是高水平的自身抗体，可能反映无症状个体的临床前疾病；（iv）在有阳性家族自身免疫性疾病病史的男性中，抗 TPO 的偶然阳性值得进一步关注。这些结果鼓励医生除了治疗各种患者的健康问题外，还评估自身抗体，以早期发现自身免疫介导性疾病。
