Despite the worldwide acceptance of ICAP recommendations by clinical laboratories, academic institutions, and in vitro diagnostic industries, there is still considerable heterogeneity regarding the interpretation and reporting of HEp-2 IFA among different laboratories.
The scientific publications regarding the prevalence of HEp-2 IFA results are most frequently based on local/regional data, making it difficult to accurately register differences in the frequency of positive HEp-2 IFA tests and each HEp-2 IFA pattern in different parts of the world.
The HEp-2 CIC project aims to categorize and quantify the spectrum of heterogeneity in several aspects of the HEp-2 IFA test in laboratories worldwide.
Participating laboratories were invited aiming to obtain global geographical representation, including all continents (see below the representative world map). The coordinator of the immunology section identification of candidate laboratories filled out a structured form with relevant information on the HEp-2 IFA operation in the lab.
In addition, each participating laboratory provided complete data on the HEp-2 IFA result for all patients tested from January 1st to December 31st, 2019, without personal information of the patients. Data obtained from the participating laboratories were transferred to a structured database that allowed the comparison and harmonization of data from different laboratories.
To date, the HEp-2 CIC project obtained 464,161 results of the HEp-2 IFA test from 42 laboratories in 30 countries and five continents.
These results were analyzed and compared, and preliminary results were presented at the 13th International Congress on Autoimmunity, from June 8 to June 13 in Athens, Greece.
Both abstracts, as well as the participants’ list, can be seen below.
Luis Eduardo C. Andrade, MD, PhD
International Consensus on ANA Patterns (ICAP), Autoantibody Standardizing Committee, International Union of Immunological Societies. Federal University of Sao Paulo, Rheumatology Division, Department of Medicine, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Trischna Martins
Federal University of Sao Paulo, Rheumatology Division, Department of Medicine, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
For additional information on any queries, please contact the coordinators at HEp-2.CIC.project@unifesp.br
| Ilidio Abreu | Hospital Dr. Nelio Mendonca, Servico de Patologia Clinica, Madeira, Portugal |
| Jamil Al-Mughales | King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Medicine Diagnostic Immunology Division, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia |
| Luis Andrade | International Consensus on ANA Patterns (ICAP), Autoantibody Standardizing Committee, International Union of Immunological Societies. |
| Elaine Au | Queen Mary Hospital, Division of Clinical Immunology, Department of Pathology, Hong Kong, Hong Kong PRC |
| E. Umit Bagnacik | Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Immunology, Ankara, Turkey |
| Nancy Barrera | Fundación Instituto de Reumatología Fernando Chalem, Laboratorio Clínico, Bogota, Colombia |
| Martin Bluethner | MVZ Laboratory PD Dr. Volkmann Colleagues, Laboratory, Karlsruhe, Germany |
| Dimitrios P. Bogdanos | Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, Laboratory of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Larissa, Greece |
| Ronald A. Booth | Ottawa Hospital, EORLA & University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada |
| Fabiano Brito | LAC-Laboratorio de Análisis Clínico, Inmunologia, Montevideo, Uruguay |
| Gabriel Carballo | Hospital Carlos G. Durand, Laboratory of Immunology, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Amira Cerimagic | Medical Faculty of Medicine, Department of laboratory diagnostics, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| Edward K.L. Chan | University of Florida, Department of Oral Biology, Florida, United States of America |
| Daniela Cihakova | John Hopkins University, Department of Pathology, Baltimore, United States of America |
| Karsten Conrad | Technical University of Dresden, Institute of Immunology, Dresden, Germany |
| Jan Damoiseaux | Maastricht University Medical Center, Central Diagnostic Laboratory, Maastricht, Netherlands |
| Kolter Freidhof | Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Laboratory, Rochester, AL, United States of America |
| Marvin Fritzler | University of Calgary, Cumming School of Medicine, Calgary, AB, Canada |
| Keying Fu | Hainan General Hospital/Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Medical Laboratory Center, Hainan, China |
| Ignacio Garcia de la Torre | Universidad de Guadalajara, Department of Immunology and Rheumatology Hospital General de Occidente, Guadalajara,Mexico |
| Ranjan Gupta | All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Dept. of Rheumatology, New Delhi, India |
| Manfred Herold | Medical University of Innsbruck, Department of Internal Medicine II Rheumatology Laboratory, Innsbruck, Austria |
| Marcos Lopez Hoyos | Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Valdecilla (IDIVAL), Santander, Spain |
| Maria Infantino | Ospedale San Giovanni di Dio, Laboratorio Immunologia e Allergologia, Azienda Usl Toscana Centro, Dipartimento di Medicina di Laboratorio, Firenze, Italy |
| Ricky Ip | Queen Mary Hospital, Division of Clinical Immunology, Department of Pathology, Hong Kong, Hong Kong PRC |
| Andres Mendiola Jimenez | Hospital Universitario de la UANL, Servicio de Reumatología, Monterrey, Mexico |
| Resul Karakus | Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Immunology, Ankara, Turkey |
| Abid Karim | The Medical School, Clinical Immunology, Birmingham, United Kingdom |
| Werner Klotz | Medical University of Innsbruck, Department of Internal Medicine II Rheumatology Laboratory, Innsbruck, Austria |
| Vathany Kulasingam | University of Toronto, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, Toronto, Canada |
| Diana Landoni | LAC-Laboratorio de Análisis Clínico, Inmunologia, Montevideo, Uruguay |
| Sergey Lapin | Pavlov First Saint Petersburg State Medical University, Laboratory for Diagnosis of Autoimmune Diseases, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation |
| Laurence Lutteri | Liège University Hospital, Department of Clinical Chemistry, Liège, Belgium |
| Mariangela Manfredi | Ospedale San Giovanni di Dio, Laboratorio Immunologia e Allergologia, Azienda Usl Toscana Centro, Dipartimento di Medicina di Laboratorio, Firenze, Italy |
| Cristóvão Mangueira | Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Laboratory, Sao Paulo, Brazil |
| Mercedes Menendez | Hospital Británico, Laboratorio, Montevideo, Uruguay |
| Khaled Mtewally | Lupus Medical Laboratory, Laboratory, Cairo, Egypt |
| Tsuneyo Mimori | Takeda General Hospital, Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan |
| Lucile Musset | CHU Pitié Salpêtrière-Ch Foix, APHP, Département d’Immunologie, UF immunochimie & autoimmunité, Paris, France |
| Eszter Nagy | National Institute of Locomotor diseases and Disabilities, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Budapest, Hungary |
| Ran Nakashima | Takeda General Hospital, Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan |
| Carlos A. Núñez-Alvarez | Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Laboratorio, Mexico City, Mexico |
| Scott Pereira | Health Services Laboratories, Pathology, London, United Kingdom |
| Kerri Prain | Autoimmune-Immunobiology Laboratory, Immunology Department, Queensland, Australia |
| Nadja Roeber | Technical University of Dresden, Institute of Immunology, Dresden, Germany |
| Emir Hondo | Department of Laboratory Diagnostics, General Hospital Tešanj, Tešanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| Johan Rönnelid | Uppsala University, Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala, Sweden |
| Ola Saati | King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Medicine Diagnostic Immunology Division, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia |
| Ulrich Sacks | Universität Leipzig, Medizinische Fakultät, Klinische Immunologie, Leipzig, Germany |
| Sofiane Samir Salah | University Hospital of Mustapha Bacha, Immunology Department, Algiers, Algeria |
| Lorena M. Santafé Sarzosa | Synlab solutions in diagnostics, Bioquimica Clinica, Quito, Ecuador |
| Minoru Satoh | University of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Health Sciences, Kitakyushu, Japan |
| Lusia Sepiaschvilli | The Hospital for Sick Children/ University of Toronto, Paediatric Laboratory Medicine, Toronto, ON, Canada |
| Melissa R. Snyder | Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Laboratory, Rochester, United States of America |
| Mohsen Tanfus | CHAUR-centre hospitalier affilié universitaire, MCQ-Mauricie centre du Quebec, Quebec, Canada |
| Anne Tebo | University of Utah Health; ARUP Laboratories, Department of Pathology, Salt Lake City, United States of America, Current institution: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States Of America |
| Carolina Valenzuela | Instituto de Salud Pública de Chile, Laboratorio Nacional y de Referencia de Inmunología, Santiago, Chile |
| Lieve Van Hoovels | OLV Hospital Aalst, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Aalst, Belgium |
| Martine Vercammen | Sint-Jan Hospital, Brugge/Oostende, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Brugge, Belgium |
