[Postie]

Can anyone tell me what this would mean?

I haven't been diagnosed yet but my ANA went to 640 and since 1998 it was always 160 and 320 and has never been any higher. It's always showed positive. But this time it went up. My white count has always been low around 2.3 and 3. It was 2.3 in January but dropped to 2.1 now.

I had labwork for C3 and range is 88-193. Mine showed 92.
C4 range is 12.00-36.00 and mine showed 17.50.

What do those mean?

CindyLou

 

[Maia]

Well, the c3 & c4 are in the normal range, so that doesn't mean a whole lot. They are obviously on the low end but won't likely be thought to be meaningfully important while still in range. It is certainly worth testing from time to time to see if they fall further. Low levels of c4 in particular are indicative of lupus, but many lupus patients will be low on both.

The ANA at 1:640 should be high enough to "qualify" for a diagnosis of some sort of autoimmune disease; especially since you have testing positive although at a dilution or two lower for a fairly long period of time.

A low white blood cell count is often due to lupus, but not always. Certain subsets of white blood cells being lower are more common with lupus - do you know if it was neutrophils, lymphocytes that were low for example?

Definitely discuss these results with your doctor, and most importantly as about starting some kind of treatment even if he/she is not willing to settle on a particular diagnosis at the moment. The diagnosis is also about your symptoms, not just the blood work. I would think though, that with the ANA in particular that you should be able to get on some treatment at this point for UCTD (undifferentiated connective tissue disease) which is what is diagnosed when they are unsure what disease you have but know something autoimmune is going on.

Good luck - let us know how the meeting with the doctor goes!

 

[Postie]

Well, the c3 & c4 are in the normal range, so that doesn't mean a whole lot. They are obviously on the low end but won't likely be thought to be meaningfully important while still in range. It is certainly worth testing from time to time to see if they fall further. Low levels of c4 in particular are indicative of lupus, but many lupus patients will be low on both.

The ANA at 1:640 should be high enough to "qualify" for a diagnosis of some sort of autoimmune disease; especially since you have testing positive although at a dilution or two lower for a fairly long period of time.

A low white blood cell count is often due to lupus, but not always. Certain subsets of white blood cells being lower are more common with lupus - do you know if it was neutrophils, lymphocytes that were low for example?

Definitely discuss these results with your doctor, and most importantly as about starting some kind of treatment even if he/she is not willing to settle on a particular diagnosis at the moment. The diagnosis is also about your symptoms, not just the blood work. I would think though, that with the ANA in particular that you should be able to get on some treatment at this point for UCTD (undifferentiated connective tissue disease) which is what is diagnosed when they are unsure what disease you have but know something autoimmune is going on.

Good luck - let us know how the meeting with the doctor goes!

Hello and thanks for your reply. Since 1998 I have had Chronic Fatigue Immune Syndrome. Since that time my ANA was always positive at either 120 and 360 and it would always vary back and forth. The patterns then are the same now--homogeneous and speckled. My white count is 2.1. In fact when I got sick the white count went way down to 1 something.

Then it says this which I don't understand. The SEG NEUTROPHIL is 31 and it says low. Range is 40-75. LYMPHOCYTE is 48 High and range is 20-42. MONOCYTE is 14 High and range is 2-11. Does that help any? In January my last labs showed white count as 2.3. Neut% was low at 26.5 and range is 38-70. LYMPH was high at 55 and range is 21-49. MONO is high at 13.4 and range is 0.0-11. NEUT# was low at 0.6 and range was 1.8-7.7.

CindyLou

 

[Maia]

Hopefully, you'll get started on treatment for an autoimmune disorder at this point. Here is a link that talks all about neutrophils in plain English. Certainly, neutrophils are one target of autoimmune disease antibodies.


http://www.medfriendly.com/neutrophil.html

Section of most interest to you would be as follows:

The body can actually produce proteins known as antineutrophil antibodies that destroy neutrophils. These proteins are produced in autoimmune diseases in which the body mistakenly attacks itself. An example of an autoimmune disorder that can cause an abnormal decrease in neutrophils is systemic lupus erythematosus (abbreviated SLE). SLE is a long-term disease in which the connective tissues throughout the body are inflamed because the body's defense system attacks these tissues as if they were foreign substances.