[madwife]

Im not yet diagnosed with any condition but my G.P. has discussed the possibility of me having lupus or some other autoimmune diesease. He phoned me today to say that my ANA had come back positive. What does that mean? The following are my results but I dont understand what it all means.

Anti nuclear factor titre POSITIVE
1/80

Anti mitochondrial NEGATIVE
antibody titre

Anti smooth muscle NEGATIVE
autoantibody

Reticulin antibody titre NEGATIVE
Parital cell NEGATIVE
autoantibodies

Serum ANA pattern Speckled

DNA binding 13.2

-sm/RNP/SSA/SSB POSITIVE

 

[Maia]

The ANA titre is fairly low, although positive it's a low positive and some doctors will not interpret it to be a true positive. Many doctors will want to see a minimum of 1:160, or 1:320 to consider it a strong enough positive to be meaningful.

However, if all four of those other antibodies were positive (Smith, RNP, SSA, SSB) then that should be enough to be taken seriously. Were there any values or titres given for those antibody tests?

Will you be seeing a rheumatologist soon then? That should be the next step!

 

[madwife]

Hi Maia,

Thankyou for replying to my post. There were no values or titres given for the anti bodytests. My G.P. said that the -sm, RNP, SSA and SSB were all positive. They are displayed on the report as follows;

R ENA (RO/LA/SM/RNP/JO1/SCL70)
-sm/RNP/SSA/SSB POSITIVE

I am seeing a rheumatologist on Tuesday.

 

[Clare.T]

I am not sure if when that ENA panel is described as positive if it means that each test is positive or if it means that one, or two, of the elements are positive and more specific tests have to be done to determine which exactly are positive.
Normal is negative for each of those tests regardless of titre. Negative doesn't mean there aren't any
Usually a lab will have a range below which is called negative, and above which is called positive with an intermediate range called equivocal.

They are all significant to confirming autoimmune connective tissue disease but the specialist has to determine their precise significance for the individual, along with symptoms and so on plus their clinical judgement.

Anti Ro is associated with lupus, Sjogren's, neonatal lupus subacute cutaneous lupus( skin), high photosensitivity. A speckled ANA pattern is associated with anti Ro.
Anti La is rarely found without anti Ro and the two together can point to Sjogren's
Anti Sm is even more specific for lupus than anti ds DNA
Anti RNP can be associated with lupus and some other diseases and at high titres is often found along with the symptoms that are called Mixed Connective Tissue Disease
Anti- Jo might indicate mysositis and anti Scl might indicate some form of scleroderma. It all depends on how the antibodies express themselves in any individual, in other words on the symptoms

I'd say that the presence of any one of these is significant however low titre the ANA is at this point. Of the very few who have lupus but negative ANA, half of those are Ro- positive lupus.

All the best

Clare

 

[madwife]

Thanks Clare.T, that information was really helpful. My G.P. has said that my -sm, RNP, SSA and SSB were all positive, so Im assuming that the RO, JO1 and SCL70 are negative. Do you know what the DNA binding is as mine was 13.2?