Logo image
Serum Anti-Heart and Anti-Intercalated Disk Autoantibodies: Novel Autoimmune Markers in Cardiac Sarcoidosis
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Serum Anti-Heart and Anti-Intercalated Disk Autoantibodies: Novel Autoimmune Markers in Cardiac Sarcoidosis

Alida L. P. Caforio, Anna Baritussio, Renzo Marcolongo, Chun-Yan Cheng, Elena Pontara, Elisa Bison, Maria Grazia Cattini, Nicoletta Gallo, Mario Plebani, Sabino Iliceto, …
Journal of clinical medicine, Vol.10(11), p.2476
06/01/2021
DOI: 10.3390/jcm10112476
PMCID: PMC8199734
PMID: 34199661
url
https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10112476View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Background: Sarcoidosis is an immune-mediated disease. Cardiac involvement, a granulomatous form of myocarditis, is under-recognized and prognostically relevant. Anti-heart autoantibodies (AHAs) and anti-intercalated disk autoantibodies (AIDAs) are autoimmune markers in nonsarcoidosis myocarditis forms. Objective: The aim was to assess serum AHAs and AIDAs as autoimmune markers in cardiac sarcoidosis. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study on AHA and AIDA frequency in: 29 patients (aged 46 +/- 12, 20 male) with biopsy-proven extracardiac sarcoidosis and biopsy-proven or clinically suspected and confirmed by 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography and/or cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) cardiac involvement; 30 patients (aged 44 +/- 11, 12 male) with biopsy-proven extracardiac sarcoidosis without cardiac involvement (no cardiac symptoms, normal 12-lead electrocardiogram, echocardiography and CMR), and control patients with noninflammatory cardiac disease (NICD) (n = 160), ischemic heart failure (IHF) (n = 141) and normal blood donors (NBDs) (n = 270). Sarcoidosis patients were recruited in two recruiting tertiary centers in the USA and Italy. AHAs and AIDAs were detected by indirect immunofluorescence on the human myocardium and skeletal muscle. Results: AHA and AIDA frequencies were higher in sarcoidosis with cardiac involvement (86%; 62%) than in sarcoidosis without cardiac involvement (0%; 0%), NICD (8%; 4%), IHF (7%; 2%) and NBD (9%; 0%) (p = 0.0001; p = 0.0001, respectively). Sensitivity and specificity for cardiac sarcoidosis were 86% and 92% for positive AHAs and 62% and 98% for positive AIDAs, respectively. AIDAs in cardiac sarcoidosis were associated with a higher number of involved organs (p = 0.04). Conclusions: Serum AHAs and AIDAs provide novel noninvasive diagnostic autoimmune markers for cardiac sarcoidosis.
General & Internal Medicine Life Sciences & Biomedicine Medicine, General & Internal Science & Technology

Details

Logo image