Dr. Allan Wiik

ICAP acknowledges the historical impact that the late Dr. Alan Wiik (December 1936 — October 2022) had on the standardization and harmonization of autoantibody testing and reporting of results. He was an inaugural member and Vice-Chair of the ANA Subcommittee of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) (1-5) and Vice-Chair of the European Autoantibody Consensus group and President of the European Autoimmunity Standardization Initiative (EASI) (6). He was an unwavering advocate of ANA standardization (7) and championing the involvement of the entire clinical spectrum from patient to physician to laboratory scientist (8-10). Equally notable was his seminal work using advanced imaging and algorithms to standardize HEp-2 IFA pattern nomenclature and reporting (11), which became critical to informing ICAP’s work (12). His keen thinking, scholarly approach and statesmanship will be missed, but not forgotten.

1. Tan EM, Feltkamp TE, Smolen JS, Butcher B, Dawkins R, Fritzler MJ, Gordon T, Hardin JA, Kalden JR, Lahita RG, Maini RN, McDougal JS, Rothfield NF, Smeenk RJ, Takasaki Y, Wiik A, Wilson MR, Koziol JA. Range of antinuclear antibodies in "healthy" individuals. Arthritis Rheum. 1997;40:1601-11.
2. Tan EM, Smolen JS, McDougal JS, Butcher BT, Conn D, Dawkins R, Fritzler MJ, Gordon T, Hardin JA, Kalden JR, Lahita RG, Maini RN, Rothfield NF, Smeenk R, Takasaki Y, van Venrooij WJ, Wiik A, Wilson M, Koziol JA. A critical evaluation of enzyme immunoassays for detection of antinuclear autoantibodies of defined specificities. I. Precision, sensitivity, and specificity. Arthritis Rheum. 1999;42:455-64.
3. Tan EM, Smolen JS, McDougal JS, Fritzler MJ, Gordon T, Hardin JA, Kalden JR, Lahita RG, Maini RN, Reeves WH, Rothfield NF, Takasaki Y, Wiik A, Wilson M, Koziol JA. A critical evaluation of enzyme immunoassay kits for detection of antinuclear autoantibodies of defined specificities. II. Potential for quantitation of antibody content. J Rheumatol. 2002;29:68-74.
4. Fritzler MJ, Wiik A, Tan EM, Smolen JS, McDougal JS, Chan EKL, Gordon TP, Hardin JA, Kalden JR, Lahita RG, Maini RN, Reeves WH, Rothfield NF, Takasaki Y, Wilson M, Byrd MG, Slivka L, Koziol JA. A critical evaluation of enzyme immunoassay kits for detection of antinuclear autoantibodies of defined specificities. III. Comparative performance characteristics of academic and manufacturers' laboratories. J Rheumatol. 2003;30:2374-81.
5. Chan EKL, Fritzler MJ, Wiik A, Andrade LE, Reeves WH, Tincani A, Meroni PL. Autoantibody Standardization Committee in 2006. Autoimmun Rev. 2007;6:577-80.
6. Damoiseaux J, Olschowka N, Shoenfeld Y. EASI - European Autoimmunity Standardisation Initiative: facing the challenges of diagnostics in autoimmunity. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2018;56:1620-3.
7. Bossuyt X, Louche C, Wiik A. Standardisation in clinical laboratory medicine: an ethical reflection. Ann Rheum Dis. 2008;67:1061-3.
8. Fritzler MJ, Wiik A, Fritzler ML, Barr SG. The use and abuse of commercial kits used to detect autoantibodies. Arthritis Res Ther. 2003;5:192-201. PMC:165068.
9. Wiik AS, Gordon TP, Kavanaugh AF, Lahita RG, Reeves W, van Venrooij WJ, Wilson MR, Fritzler M. Cutting edge diagnostics in rheumatology: the role of patients, clinicians, and laboratory scientists in optimizing the use of autoimmune serology. Arthritis Rheum. 2004;51:291-8.
10. Wiik AS. Anti-nuclear autoantibodies: clinical utility for diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring, and planning of treatment strategy in systemic immunoinflammatory diseases. Scand J Rheumatol. 2005;34:260-8.
11. Wiik AS, Hoier-Madsen M, Forslid J, Charles P, Meyrowitsch J. Antinuclear antibodies: a contemporary nomenclature using HEp-2 cells. J Autoimmun. 2010;35:276-90.
12. Chan EKL, Damoiseaux J, Carballo OG, Conrad K, de Melo Cruvinel W, Francescantonio PL, Fritzler MJ, Garcia-De La Torre I, Herold M, Mimori T, Satoh M, von Muhlen CA, Andrade LE. Report of the First International Consensus on Standardized Nomenclature of Antinuclear Antibody HEp-2 Cell Patterns 2014-2015. Front Immunol. 2015;6:412. PMC:4542633.