Hello there,
In cases where ANA is negative or very low positive (as in your case) diagnosis can be very difficult. Experienced specialists will take all the clinical signs into account too and it sounds like this is what has happened here. There are many docs who will point blank refuse a diagnosis unless bloods back it up.
Yes you can have a diagnosis even with a negative band test. There is no one test that can say you do not have lupus as patients can have negative results for many tests at different times. I'm afraid I can't remember the figures for how many SLE sufferers will be negative on that test. It's actually quite high, so a negative doesn't mean you don't have lupus even if a positive definitely does.
The ANA test in itself is only a screening test that if highly positive is indicative of lupus or another auto-immune disease and even that test can disappear or vary due to treatment etc. For some rare patients (they say as little as 2%) there is never a positive ANA.
I am an ANA negative lupus sufferer (though my band test was highly positive) but since diagnosis other, more specific blood tests have started to show up.
My head's not too clear today, so I hope that answer wasn't too muddled,
bye for now,
Katharine
In cases where ANA is negative or very low positive (as in your case) diagnosis can be very difficult. Experienced specialists will take all the clinical signs into account too and it sounds like this is what has happened here. There are many docs who will point blank refuse a diagnosis unless bloods back it up.
Yes you can have a diagnosis even with a negative band test. There is no one test that can say you do not have lupus as patients can have negative results for many tests at different times. I'm afraid I can't remember the figures for how many SLE sufferers will be negative on that test. It's actually quite high, so a negative doesn't mean you don't have lupus even if a positive definitely does.
The ANA test in itself is only a screening test that if highly positive is indicative of lupus or another auto-immune disease and even that test can disappear or vary due to treatment etc. For some rare patients (they say as little as 2%) there is never a positive ANA.
I am an ANA negative lupus sufferer (though my band test was highly positive) but since diagnosis other, more specific blood tests have started to show up.
My head's not too clear today, so I hope that answer wasn't too muddled,
bye for now,
Katharine
