Specific immunodiagnosis of hepatoma by tube leukocyte adherence inhibition assay and a modified method of repeated tube leukocyte adherence inhibition assay.

Tube leukocyte adherence inhibition (LAI) assays were performed with normal liver extract as nonspecific antigen and with hepatoma extract as specific antigen in patients with hepatoma. Titration experiments revealed that the optimal extract concentration was 400 micrograms/ml when expressing the results in terms of a nonadherence index. The results of tube LAI assays were positive in 26 of 40 cases (65%) of hepatoma. The results were negative in all cases of other liver diseases and other cancers. The tube LAI assay was repeated after discarding the non-adherent cells in the initial tube LAI assay with normal liver extract. The nonadherence index of the repeated tube LAI assay we devised was significantly higher than that of the original tube LAI assay (p less than 0.001) in patients with hepatoma. Ten of 12 patients with hepatoma in whom the results of the original tube LAI assay were negative showed positive results in the repeated tube LAI assay. The present study suggests that the problem of false-negative results in tube LAI assay can be solved by repeating the tube LAI assay.