Reproducibility of Immunological Tests Used To Assess Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome

Abstract

CLINICAL AND DIAGNOSTIC LABORATORY IMMUNOLOGY, Nov. 2003, p. 1029–1036 Vol. 10, No. 6 1071-412X/03/$08.00
0 DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.10.6.1029–1036.2003 Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved. Reproducibility of Immunological Tests Used To Assess Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome Donald R. Hoover,1 Albert Donnay,2 Clifford S. Mitchell,3 Grace Ziem,4 Noel R. Rose,3,5 Daniel E. Sabath,6 Edward J. Yurkow,7 Robert Nakamura,8 Robert F. Vogt,9 Myron Waxdal,10 and Joseph B. Margolick5* Department of Statistics and Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research1 and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute,7 Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey; Department of Environmental Health Sciences3 and Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology,5 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and MCS Referral and Resources,2 Baltimore, Maryland; Emmitsburg, Maryland4; Departments of Laboratory Medicine and Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington6; Department of Pathology, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California8; Division of Laboratory Sciences, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia9; and FAST Systems, Inc., Gaithersburg, Maryland10 Received 12 February 2003/Returned for modification 10 April 2003/Accepted 2 July 2003 Whether persons with multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome (MCS) have immunological abnormalities is unknown. To assess the reliability of selected immunological tests that have been hypothesized to be associated with MCS, replicate blood samples from 19 healthy volunteers, 15 persons diagnosed with MCS, and 11 persons diagnosed with autoimmune disease were analyzed in five laboratories for expression of four T-cell surface activation markers (CD25, CD26, CD38, and HLA-DR) and in four laboratories for autoantibodies (to smooth muscle, thyroid antigens, and myelin). For T-cell activation markers, the intralaboratory reproduc- ibility was very good

Key Biomarkers

Symptom Clusters