"Many antibodies used in diagnostic immunoassays are derived from rabbits.
Keeping rabbits as pets is known to be a risk factor for developing heterophilic
(or interfering) antibodies.Studies have shown that 30-40% of the population
have heterophilic antibodies.However, only about 0.05-0.5% of
immunoassays seem to be affected to the extent that the concentration of
interfering antibodies overwhelms the assay system.
We report a case in which the presence of heterophilic antibodies
led to unnecessary investigations."
The journal article also says
" A 52 year old woman was referred to our hospital in July 2001 for further investigation of persistently raised fasting gut hormones concentrations. She had had irritable bowel syndrome diagnosed 16 years previously. The high concentrations of gut hormones had first been detected nine years ago, when, after an exacerbation of her condition, she had investigations to screen for other possible causes of diarrhoea. Computed tomography of the abdomen, magnetic resonance imaging of the pancreas, and an octreotide scan at that time all gave normal results. The referring hospital attributed the abnormal blood test results to hyperplasia of pancreatic islet cells."
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