Background:

Anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) is used as a screening test for autoimmune diseases as well as being utilized for diagnostic and classification purposes. As a gold standard for ANA, manual indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) technique is used; although it has high sensitivity, it is time-consuming and requires skilled operators. For ANA tests, clinical and research laboratories mainly use manual indirect immunofluorescence method and for antibodies enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is used. During recent years, in an attempt to replace the manual method, several comparative studies have been performed for using automated immunofluorescence method and fully automated multiplex immunoassay method. Automated methods have high costs, these systems also have disadvantages like giving false negative results and certain technical problems experienced at the stage of identification; however, as they provide the users with the opportunity to standardize the test results and to rapidly run and report the test results it is possible to see more widespread use of these systems in clinical laboratories thanks to the technical advancements in the field.

Keywords: Autoimmune disease; automation; antibodies, antinuclear