Do intrinsic factor antibodies assays provide univocal answers in Biermer's disease?

The objective of the study is to evaluate the concordance of four assays for antibodies against intrinsic factor (IF-Ab). Sixty-two sera were tested with one competitive automated and three manual noncompetitive assays. Thirty-five percent patients had discordant results with at least one of the four assays. However, any method uncovered patients with proven Biermer's disease missed by the others assays. The observed discordance partly explains the poor sensitivity of IF-Ab in studies using a single assay. (c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.