Serodiagnosis of Mycobacterium avium complex pulmonary disease in rheumatoid arthritis

Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) pulmonary disease (PD) is often difficult and complicated to diagnose or to discriminate from follicular bronchitis, bronchiectasis, or other conditions associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) lung in the clinical setting.

We investigated whether a serologic test for anti-glycopeptidolipid (GPL) antibody was useful for distinguishing MAC-PD from RA lung in diagnosis.

Serum IgA antibody to MAC-specific GPL core antigen was measured by an enzyme immunoassay. Antibody levels were measured in sera from 14 RA patients with MAC-PD (RA + MAC), 20 RA patients with bronchial or bronchiolar lesions without MAC-PD (RA w/o MAC), 20 RA patients without pulmonary lesions (RA only), and 25 healthy volunteers (HV).

The levels of serum anti-GPL antibodies were higher in the RA + MAC group than in the RA w/o MAC, RA-only, and HV groups (2.87 ± 2.83 vs. 0.50 ± 0.45, 0.31 ± 0.24, and 0.38 ± 0.10 U/ml, respectively; p < 0.001). With the cutoff point in receiver-operating characteristic analysis set at 0.7 U/ml, the serologic test differentiated RA + MAC from RA w/o MAC with a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 90%.

This serologic test for anti-GPL antibody is useful for diagnosing MAC-PD in RA.