Prof. Dr. Manfred Herold

Prof. Dr. Manfred Herold
Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria

Autoantibodies in connective tissue diseases

Manfred Herold
Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria

The estimated prevalence of autoimmune connective tissue diseases (CTDs) is 3 to 5%. The first line of testing in patients suspected of CTD is screening for antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) , more appropriately defined as anti-cellular antibodies  also recommended on the proposal by International Consensus on ANAPatterns (ICAP) group. The detection of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) is also included in several classification criteria like systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Sjogren’s syndrome (SjS), systemic sclerosis (SSc) and mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD). Autoantibodies also assist with the clinical diagnosis of other conditions including idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) or Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA).
A recent survey has shown that indirect immunofluorescence continues to be the predominate technique used for ANA testing in laboratories worldwide and an increasing number of laboratories is using the ICAP classification.
Beside ANAs also non-antinuclear autoantibodies may frequently be observed like anti-Phospholipid (APL), anti-C1q or anti-Ribosomal P autoantibodies in SLE
or anti-α-Fodrin autoantibodies in SjS.
Autoantibodies can be present before any clinical symptoms, but in the majority of cases it is unclear how these autoantibodies are involved in the pathogenesis of CTDs. Nevertheless, autoantibodies can help clinicians for diagnosis.

Scurt CV

Dr. Niazi is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases and Interventional Cardiology by the American Board of Internal Medicine. In addition he is certified in Vascular Medicine Board and in Endovascular Board by the American Board of Vascular Medicine. He has had extensive experience working in some of the leading institutions of the world including USA. He was the first physician who conducted a prospective trial of small vessel stenting was superior to balloon angioplasty in coronary arteries. He joined Emory University in 2003. He has trained many cardiologists and has done mini-seminars in how to do and read non-invasive Doppler techniques for the diagnosis of vascular diseases and complex interventional procedures. He has written two book chapters in Interventional Cardiology 2nd edition on PAD and chronic venous disease. He has pushed cardiologists to look for vascular disease outside the heart. Dr. Niazi is a prolific teacher and besides teaching medical students, residents and cardiology fellows, he has been invited to give lectures, grand rounds locally, nationally and internationally. He has done live demonstration cases demonstrating various endovascular techniques in different countries. He enjoys working with other physicians and learning from them.