An Assessment of Radioimmunoassay Procedures for Determination of Anti-Acetylcholine Receptor Antibodies in the Sera of Patients with Myasthenia Gravis

Abstract

A reproducible radioimmunoassay procedure for the determination of anti-acetylcholine receptor antibodies in the sera of patients with myasthenia gravis is described and examined in detail. The assay combines features of a number of methods previously outlined and allows repeat determinations of antibody titre in a given myasthenic serum sample with coefficient of variation 6%. The mean ± standard deviation for normal human serum anti-acetylcholine receptor antibodies was found by this procedure to be 0·024 ± 0·033 nmol/l α-bungarotoxin binding sites whereas the range for myasthenic patients was 0–139·14 nmol/l with a mean value of 7·55 nmol/l α-bungarotoxin binding sites.