Anti-beta-tubulin antibodies have no diagnostic value in patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy.

High-titre anti-beta-tubulin antibodies were recently reported to occur in over 50% of sera from patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP). It was concluded that these antibodies may help to distinguish CIDP from other neuropathies and that they are diagnostically useful. To verify these findings, we studied sera of 43 CIDP patients, only 3 of whom had anti-beta-tubulin antibodies. The differences between the results obtained cannot fully be explained by differences between patients or antigens but may be explained by the use of different techniques (Western blot versus ELISA). We used Western blot, which is less sensitive but far more specific, to detect these antibodies. The findings of our study did not confirm the high frequency of selective high-titre anti-beta-tubulin antibodies in CIDP patients. Therefore we conclude that binding to beta-tubulin by Western blot cannot serve as a marker of CIDP.