Abstract
Background: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a heterogeneous disease in pathology, clinical course, and responsiveness to treatment. We previously showed that serum periostin is elevated in IPF patients and inversely associated with pulmonary function (Eur Respir J, 37 , 1119, 2011). However, serum periostin is high also in various fibrotic diseases. Therefore, it has been awaited to develop a periostin detection kit with a specificity for pulmonary fibrosis.
Aims and objectives: We developed a periostin detection ELISA kit, specific for pulmonary fibrosis, and we evaluated the usefulness of a new periostin detection ELISA kit in IPF patients.
Methods: We used a new periostin detection kit specific for pulmonary fibrosis (SS20A × SS19D), enrolling 84 IPF patients from seven facilities in Japan.
Results: The detection kit showed higher serum periostin than normal donors in IPF patients. Serum periostin showed an inverse association with decline of %VC or %DLCO six months later and a positive association with the extent of honeycombing on high-resolution CT. The sensitivities and the specificities between poor and good prognosis patients were significantly higher with the new kit. These abilities of the new kit were better than the old kit, KL-6, or SP-D. Furthermore, the new kit demonstrated its specificity for IPF patients against patients with bronchial asthma, scleroderma, and atopic dermatitis.
Conclusions: We have established a new periostin detection kit specific for pulmonary fibrosis. The new periostin kit shows excellent abilities to diagnose IPF and to predict prognosis of lung function in IPF patients. This kit would be of great use in the care or treatment of IPF patients.
- Copyright ©ERS 2015
