The significance of serum IgG₄ and CA19-9, autoantibodies in diagnosis and differential diagnosis of IgG₄-related sclerosing cholangitis

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the value of serum levels of IgG₄ and CA19-9, and autoantibodies in the diagnosis of IgG₄-related sclerosing cholangitis (IgG₄-SC).

Methods: We detected the serum IgG₄ and CA19-9 of 45 IgG₄-SC patients, 173 non-IgG₄-SC patients and 48 healthy controls by immunoassay and chemiluminescence, respectively, with antinuclear antibody (ANA), anti-neutrophil antibody (ANCA), anti-smooth muscle antibody (SMA) and anti-mitochondrial antibody (AMA) level detected by indirect immunofluorescence. Then analyze the detection results.

Results: (1) The positive rates of ANA, ANCA, SMA and AMA in patients with IgG₄-SC were 40%, 6.67%, 0 and 2.22%. Among them, the positive rate of ANA was significantly higher than that of the healthy control group (p < .01), and the positive rate of ANA, ANCA, SMA and AMA were significantly different from that of the non-IgG₄-SC group (p < .05). (2) Serum levels of IgG₄ and CA19-9 increased significantly in patients with IgG₄-SC compared with the healthy controls (p < .01). The areas under the ROC curve (AUC) of IgG₄ and CA19-9 were 0.9750 and 0.6498, respectively (p < .05).

Conclusion: The high levels of serum IgG₄ and CA19-9, and autoantibodies detections are of great important clinical value in diagnosis and differential diagnosis of IgG₄-SC.

Keywords:

• IgG₄-related sclerosing cholangitis
• bile duct cancer
• pancreatic cancer
• IgG₄
• CA19-9
• autoantibodies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.