The next step is to see a rheumatologist who will determine if additional testing is needed and who will make sure you will get the best care for your particular situation. So if you have a positive ANA, don’t panic. But also remember that if it is determined that you do have an autoimmune disease, there are treatment options for it. Remember, a positive ANA does not equal an autoimmune disease.
When I have a patient with a positive ANA, it means I will need to order more blood tests and take a detailed history of their symptoms as well perform a detailed physical exam. Therefore, a positive ANA test does not equal a diagnosis of lupus or any autoimmune or connective tissue disease. Causes of a false-positive ANA include infection, malignancy, and certain medications. The production of these autoantibodies is strongly age-dependent and increases to 35% in healthy individuals over the age of 65. Only about 10-13% of persons with a positive ANA test are found to have lupus, and up to 15% of completely healthy people have a positive ANA test without an autoimmune disease. How do you test for antinuclear antibodies? It’s simply a blood test, but it should only be checked if you begin having any of the symptoms mentioned above. You simply have a positive lab test without any features of an autoimmune disease. Without clinical features or lab abnormalities such as leukopenia (low white blood cell count), thrombocytopenia (low platelet count) or protein in the urine, a positive ANA means exactly that. It simply means that there are autoantibodies present. By itself, a positive ANA does not in any way mean you have an autoimmune disease or need treatment. Clinical features that can emerge include but are not limited to fever, chills, joint swelling, nasal/oral ulcers, hair loss, severe dry eyes/dry mouth, and kidney disease. This becomes clinically significant when ANAs signal the body to begin targeting itself, which can lead to autoimmune diseases, including lupus, Sjogren’s syndrome, and mixed connective tissue disease. In a case report of two patients with BD and MDS, it has been suggested that PET/CT may help diagnosis of both BD and MDS with high uptake by bone marrow in MDS. Antinuclear antibodies are autoantibodies - antibodies that target the normal proteins within the nucleus of a cell. Sometimes these antibodies make an error and mistakenly recognize normal proteins in our bodies as being foreign. They are essential in recognizing and fighting infectious organisms in the body. So let’s break it down.Īntibodies are proteins that are made in large amounts by the immune system. As a patient, it is key to understand what exactly an ANA means. As a rheumatologist, it’s my job to find out if that positive ANA has any clinical significance. Very often I have patients who come in to my office concerned that they have an autoimmune condition such as lupus because they were found to have a positive antinuclear antibody (ANA) on laboratory testing.
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