Antibody testing

[wonderone]

Is there more than one antibody test for adrenal issues?  If someone could list it/them I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

[waytoohandsome]

There are a few more.

Adrenal Cortex Antibodies  also abbreviated 'ACA'
17-alpha-hydroxylase test
and antibodies to the P450 side-change cleavage enzyme

Together, these form a pretty comprehensive autoimmune test for adrenal autoimmune conditions. I was reading a paper on it that said up to 90% effective.

But for being more thorough, you may also wanna consider Anti Pituitary Antibodies (APA) Those can mess up your ACTH production, leading to low cortisol. So the antibodies don't have to be IN  the adrenal glands to mess up the adrenal glands.

The APA ones are nowhere near 90% useful, more like 30% useful. The adrenal ones should be used more often, in my opinion.  

Now, I've asked for this testing on 4 different occasions and found many doctors are reluctant in the extreme to run them. Why? In many cases, antibody testing is not 'diagnostic' enough. Meaning that there's too many false positives and false negatives to satisfy the doctor that he can take action based on the results. Patients also don't like being told "There's a 50 percent chance that you have an autoimmune condition"..


50% is like......not knowing anything at all!

But finally my daughter is getting some of these done, but not all.

Rheumatologists are more familiar with antibody testing and it may be easier to ask them, according to one neuroendocrinologist I spoke with.

Let me know and I can get the actual research paper. It may help you or your doctor to see that the adrenal ones are actually close to being diagnostic. Most of the research seems to be going on in Italy for some reason. Papers are in English, though.

[rumpled]

I only found:
Adrenal antibody test  - also known as:
    * Adrenal autoantibodies
    * Adrenal autoantibody level
    * Antibody to adrenal antigen measurement
but they are the same test...

Maybe others will have better luck...

[wonderone]

Also, if you have adrenal antibodies, does your adrenal glands eventually go into failure?