[KarolH]

Hi everyone,

I have a question.

Back in May when I had initial blood work done part of my abnormals was the ANA and all it said was as follows...

ANA..........positive

OK, fast forward to the most recent blood work done 2 weeks ago. I called for the results and they said my ANA titer was normal.

Here is the question................is there a difference between a ANA and a ANA titer or are they two of the same.

Hope this makes sense and surely hope the smart folks here can enlighten me on this. I am confused and Google is not helping.

 

[LolaLola]

As far as I know the titre is just the number given on the results and can vary from Lab to Lab and time to time. So In essence it is just two ways of expressing the results, either by telling you positive or negative, or by telling you the actual score which I guess they achieve by a titration process.
I am no expert though, maybe someone else will be along. Blood work is not everything, I hope your symptoms are being treated.
x Lola

 

[Lily]

Hi Karol,

There are two different ways to measure ANA.

There's the ANA direct method which will be a number:

• Negative: 0-99 units/mL
• Equivocal: 100-120 units/mL
• Positive: >120 units/mL

and the one that is expressed as a ANA titre:

1:80, 1:160, 1:320, 1:640, 1:1280 etc etc

One can only guess your first test was done by the ANA direct method and was above 120 units and that the second test was done by the titre method and depending on the lab they may have detected nothing, or a low titre which they don't class as a positive. Most labs class anything over 1:80 as a low positive. Some even class 1:40 as a low positive, but they wouldnt take much notice of it. It seems these tests were done at two different labs?

ANA readings can go up and down and also the numbers often don't correlate to how ill one is. One can have a very high number and not be as bad off as someone with a lowish one. It all depends on how the disease presents itself in an individual which is why symptoms are so important..............and treatment as Lola has said.

love
Lily

 

[KarolH]

Thanks Lolo and Lily,

I can only assume that my first draw was a ANA direct and that was positive.

Second must have been the ANA titer and that was normal but again, I do not know what the number was. I will get those results this coming week.

So most people that have Lupus and have a positive ANA can have either one of the above test done but the conclusion is pretty much the same weather it is a positive result or a titer result.............right?

 

[Lily]

Correct

 

[KarolH]

Thanks Lily.

 

[Clare.T]

The results often say simply positive and then go on to give the titre. In some places they don't bother with a titre, because it costs more

The titre represents the amount of antibodies, reflected in how often the solution has to be diluted until no trace is found except they often stop after a certain number of times because there's no point knowing beyond a particular point
There might also be a difference about when positive starts 1:20, 1:40 and about what is 'normal'.

Cheers
Clare

 

[KarolH]

Thanks again Clare.:wink2: