Appropriateness of the request for laboratory tests in the diagnosis of systemic autoimmune diseases

Autoimmune diseases are caused by an immune response against some autoantigens. This response, characterized by the presence of autoantibodies, causes an inflammatory disease, which can cause a damage of specific organ (organ-specific autoimmune diseases) or systemic (systemic autoimmune diseases). The presence of these autoantibodies in the serum can therefore be a useful parameter for the diagnosis and/or monitoring of autoimmune diseases In this paper we describe a flow chart about laboratory tests in the diagnosis of systemic autoimmune diseases so as to maintain appropriateness of the request and contain costs

Diagnosing HIV “window phase” in routine laboratory: a teaching case

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a retrovirus that inserts itself into the host’s DNA and use the host – cell’s replication mechanisms for its own perpetuation. Two distinct species of HIV (HIV 1 and HIV 2) have been identified and they have a different global distribution. In this paper we describe a case of HIV early infection in an italian man of fourty years old. From this example we want to stress the importance to consider with high attention the validation of a negative index of HIV antibodies.We advise to follow this procedure that allows to avoid the risk to report a false negative