The Anti-Nuclear Antibody (ANA)
Test
by Richard Silver, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Medical
University of South Carolina (originally published in
"Scleroderma Voice," 2002 Issue #1)
Question: When you have a positive ANA titer
(concentration), can the pattern change, and if so,
what does this mean? Is the pattern of the titer indicative
of the disease you could develop?
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| Richard
Silver, M.D. |
Answer: Both the pattern
and the titer (concentration) may change, and certain
patterns are indicative of specific autoimmune diseases.
For example, the anti-centromere
and the anti-nucleolar patterns are fairly specific
for scleroderma, but other patterns such as the speckled
pattern may be seen in both scleroderma and other connective-tissue
diseases.
Generally, the ANA test is used by the rheumatologist
to help support or refute a clinical impression; neither
the pattern nor the titer is used to monitor the course
of disease. Changes in pattern and titer are relatively
insensitive, and therefore not very useful for the clinician.
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