A rapid standardized enzyme immunoassay for autoantibodies to thyroglobulin.

A rapid, specific, standardized, objective and sensitive quantitative enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) procedure has been developed for the detection of human autoantibodies to thyroglobulin. It involves three ten minute incubations, with the positive control serum adjusted to yield an absorbance of approximately 1.00. The results are reported as 'percentage of positive control' absorbance. The specificity of the reactions for thyroglobulin autoantibodies was supported by the good correlation found between the ELISA values obtained and the passive hemagglutination (PHA) titers of 348 sera from 333 patients suspected of having thyroid disturbances, as well as by antigen absorption experiments. Rheumatoid factor did not interfere with the assay. An appreciable proportion of passive hemagglutination-negative sera were confirmably positive for thyroglobulin autoantibodies by the ELISA method.