Enzyme immunoassay of complement-binding rheumatoid factors.

We describe an enzyme immunoassay for the determination of complement-binding rheumatoid factors. Polystyrene tubes are coated with heat aggregated human IgG. The rheumatoid factors (RFs) of patients heat inactivated sera are allowed to bind to aggregated IgG and thereafter saturated with fresh human complement. The amount of C3 complement bound is measured by indirect enzyme immunoassay. The levels of complement binding RFs were measured in 30 patients with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA), in 19 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and in 30 healthy control subjects. Compared to the controls high levels of complement-binding RFs were found both in RA and in SLE (P less than 0.0005). The mean level of the complement binding RFs was higher (P less than 0.05) in active than in inactive SLE. Even though the 19 S IgM RF bound complement, in RA no correlation was found between the level of complement binding RFs and Waaler-Rose titre, but the level of complement binding RF correlated with the levels of nonagglutinating IgM RF (r = 0.56, P less than 0.01) and IgG RF (r = 0.70, P less than 0.001) that were obtained by enzyme immunoassay.