Abstract
Robin Lorenz and Moon Nahn
Washington, USA: AACC Press, 2012
74 pp, Price £12.74
ISBN: 978-1-59425-142-9
I can understand why the AACC thought it would be a good idea to have a mini-guide to autoimmune serology. Autoantibody testing is becoming increasingly automated and the tests are moving from the dedicated immunology labs into the core ‘blood sciences’ labs. Autoimmune Disease Serology is a small book that contains lots of useful information but I don’t think that it is going to become the ‘go-to’ book in the lab.
This pocket-sized mini-guide starts with simple descriptions of the methodologies of indirect immunofluorescence, ELISA-based techniques, blotting methods, etc. The main section is on various disease groups and this is where I think the book has great promise which it never quite achieves. There are tables of the names of the systemic autoimmune diseases alongside the names of the associated autoantigen, but more context or explanation would improve this. The terms homogeneous, speckled, cytoplasmic and perinuclear appear and are used correctly but a good description of why there are different patterns, why we use these terms and what they mean would help enormously. It would be better to use the most up-to-date terminology where appropriate, e.g. granulomatosis with polyangiitis should now replace Wegener’s granulomatosis. There is plenty of information but it seems to be a little jumbled up, making it hard to find; e.g. the clinical sensitivity of antinuclear antibodies is given in the autoimmune serology detection techniques section rather than alongside the clinical information about antinuclear antibodies.
I am sure that these small handbook style “nuts and bolts” books are difficult to write. You need to give enough basic information to enable a novice to be able to understand the topic, and you need to pick out the important bits and present them in a concise way whilst ensuring that the reader knows that there is more….and where to find it. The information included in this book is correct (with the occasional caveat about terminology) but this would not be enough for someone learning about autoantibodies and autoimmune diseases because it lacks the very basics. On the other hand, a scientist who has the basics would probably find that it does not provide enough detail. I don’t think that I would want to keep this book in my lab coat pocket and there are much more comprehensive books for the lab book shelf. Overall, I can’t really see where it would fit into a lab.