[luannep]

Hello everybody - - this is my first post, although I have been lurking for a while. I'm hoping someone here can help me understand my lab results. I'll be seeing a rheumatologist in a few weeks, but I'm so confused by the report from the lab that I thought I'd see if anyone knows what it means.

One page says "Test Name: antinuclear antibodies, IFA; Result: see patterns". On a separate page there is a heading that reads: FANA Staining Patterns.
Right below that is a column that looks like this:
Homogeneous pattern
Nucleolar pattern
Speckled pattern
Centromere pattern
Annotation: ANA+
Note: SPRCS

That's it. I have read up about patterns, but does this mean they detected all of these staining patterns? And I have no clue what SPRCS means, if anything. I'm a little nervous about all of this and I'd sure appreciate any help.
Thank you! Sorry for the long post!
LuAnne

 

[luannep]

Karol and Lily, thanks so much for the welcome and responses.

I actually called my doctor's office and they assured me that I had all the information, but couldn't explain why the results are displayed in such a confusing way. The rheumatologist is going to have blood work done again and sent to his own (different) lab.

SPRCS will just have to remain a mystery for now, I suppose! The dr. said that the centromere pattern is the most concerning to him, but I'm still not really sure that my lab results are indicating that. To me it just looks like a list of possible results.

Thanks again! I'll post again if I learn anything new.

LuAnne

 

[luannep]

Thanks, Lil and Deb!

I will hear results from the new lab in a few days, hopefully. I've been a little bit obsessed with figuring out the results from the last lab, but I guess I just need to let it go and see what happens with the most recent tests. :-/

My gut feeling is that they will tell me everything is normal. I know this would be good news, but a little frustrating at the same time. In a way it would be hard to accept that nothing is wrong when I'm having these symptoms. It would make me wonder if I've been imagining things or making too much of them.

Okay, I'm done.
Thanks for letting me vent!

LuAnne

 

[luannep]

I'm finally back with an update! Everything came back normal this time, except for a little anemia.
Can tests like ANA fluctuate depending on whether the disease is active or in remission? I was feeling so good the day I went to the rheumatologist for the new tests that I expected the negative results. The only odd thing that day was that I was running a fever. I had one at my other doctor's appointment, too.
Thanks again for the responses and good wishes!

 

[luannep]

KarolH, I almost missed your post. I still don't know what the deal was with those other lab results as far as the patterns are concerned. My rheumy at first thought it meant every pattern was detected (!), then decided it was just the speckled and centromere.

Since my new tests came back negative for ANA I guess I'm back where I started!