Introduction
Autoimmune blistering diseases (AIBD) are a group of rare but potential fatal diseases characterised by the presence of autoantibodies directed against proteins of the skin or mucosa. There has been much publication on the various antigen-specific immunoassays that are available for the serological diagnosis of the more common subtypes of AIBD such as bullous pemphigoid (BP), pemphigus vulgaris (PV) and pemphigus foliaceous (PF).
Aim
This report systematically evaluates the current literature regarding the diagnostic value of the BIOCHIP in comparison to IIF and ELISA methods.
Materials and Methods
A systematic review of the literature was conducted in four online databases – MEDLINE (1946 to 2017), Pubmed, Cochrane (2005 to 2017) and EMBASE (1974 to 2017). The following search terms was used separately and in combination: “Pemphigus”, “Biochip”, “ELISA”, “immunofluorescence microscopy”, “Dsg1” and “Dsg3”. The reference lists of selected articles were also examined for further relevant articles. Language was not limited to English and relevant articles were critically appraised for their validity and results.
Results
Six studies investigated the diagnostic value of a new BIOCHIP mosaic-based immunofluorescence test. These studies were conducted in 3 countries (Germany, Itay and Turkey) but none in the southern hemisphere. The reported sensitivity and specificity of this immunofluorescent method is comparable with that of existing enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and indirect immunofluorescent tests using suitable substrates.