20.500.12556/DiRROS-29938 Insights into the immunological description of cryoglobulins with regard to detection and characterization in Slovenian rheumatological patients The detection of cryoglobulins (CG) used to diagnose cryoglobulemic vasculitis requires strict adherence to protocol, with emphasis on the preanalytical part. Our main objectives were to introduce a more sensitive and specific protocol for the detection of CG and to characterize CG in Slovenian patients diagnosed with cryoglobulinemic vasculitis, other vasculitides, connective tissue diseases or non-rheumatic diseases examined at the Department of Rheumatology (University Medical Centre Ljubljana). Samples were routinely analyzed for the presence of CG with the protocol using the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent. In the newly introduced protocol, the type of CG was determined by immunofixation on visually observed positive samples, and the concentration of CG in the cryoprecipitate and rheumatoid factor (RF) activity were measured by nephelometry. RF, C3c and C4 were measured in the patients` serum, and decision tree analysis was performed using all results. The agreement between negative and positive results between the two protocols was 86%. Of the 258 patient samples tested, we found 56 patients (21.7%) with positive CG (37.5% - type II, 62.5% - type III). The RF activity was observed in 21.4% of CG positive subjects. The median concentration of type II CG was significantly higher than that of type III CG (67.4 mg/L vs. 45.0 mg/L, p=0.037). Patients with type II had lower C4 concentrations and higher RF activity compared to patients with type III CG. In the decision tree, C4 was the strongest predictor of cryoglobulinemia in patients. With the newly implemented protocol, we were able to improve the detection and quantification of CG in the samples of our rheumatology patients and report the results to adequately support clinicians. cryoglobulins cryoglobulinemic vasculitis rheumatoid factor activity complement components cryoglobulin detection pre-analytical phase krioglobulini krioglobulinemični vaskulitis aktivnost revmatoidnega faktorja komponente komplementa detekcija krioglobulina predanalitična faza true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Neznano 2026-06-09 14:02:07 2026-06-09 14:02:08 2026-06-10 03:48:59 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2024 0 0 str. 185-196 Vol. 72 2024 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 616-097 0257-277X 10.1007/s12026-023-09434-9 171557379 RAZ_Ogric_Manca_2024.pdf RAZ_Ogric_Manca_2024.pdf 1 13ECD20498346D750520693E5F6770E8 252dfdf9ce10d26761b20eac6569b03fea1c4ceed7aea766cc4059b5feaab145 297c4701-63fb-11f1-9215-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=45087 Univerzitetni klinični center Ljubljana 0 0 0