Abstract

Anti-acetylcholine receptor antibodies (antiAChR Abs) are tested for in presumptive myasthenia gravis (MG) patients using a radio-immunoprecipitation assay (anti-AChR RIPA) and, to a lesser degree, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (anti-AChR ELISA). In this paper, we provide the results of autoantibody identification using several assays in a group of 23 Algerian MG patients. All patients confirmed with generalised MG (16) were positive for anti-AChR by ELISA compared to 87.5% (14) by RIPA. One (14.3%) of the seven (14.3%) ocular MG patients tested positive by ELISA, whereas 28.6% (2) tested positive by RIPA. These findings imply that some of the anti- AChR ELISA results might be false-negatives or false-positives. None of the 23 patients were seropositive for muscle-specific kinase antibodies (antiMuSK abs) by RIPA or by a cell-based test. Overall, the data show that in areas where RIPA is not accessible, anti-AChR ELISA, in combination with clinical and electrophysiological findings, may be effective for MG diagnosis. None of the 23 patients were seropositive for muscle-specific kinase antibodies (antiMuSK abs) by RIPA or by a cell-based test. Overall, the data show that in areas where RIPA is not accessible, anti-AChR ELISA, in combination with clinical and electrophysiological findings, may be effective for MG diagnosis.