Spondylitis Association of America Forums General Discussion General Message Board for Ankylosing Spondylitis and Related Diseases Positive ANA

I was recently diagnosed with undifferentiated SPA. I had a positive ANA for the first time despite being tested 4-5 times over the same number of years. It was 1:80 speckled. How common is a positive ANA with spondyloarthritis? By the way, my HLA-B27 was negative.

Thank you.

I don't know how common it is with spondy diseases. BUT, positive ANA's are often a common sign of lupus. All these diseases are so close to one another - maybe this ANA will give you a different Dx? Just a thought..... I hope one of the other's who are so knowledgable will have more info about ANA's and spondy diseases... I would like to know also, my ANA's are just slightly positive 1:40 speckled and I'm HLA-B27 negative too.

Great question! Hope we get some more info.

Take care, Jewelz

in case you don't know what ANAs area (like me), see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinuclear_antibody

OK, now I'm thoroughly confused! Is it possible to have a positive ANA one year and a negative ANA two years later? That's what my records show.

Ann

in the wikipedia item it says "Normal titer of ANA is 1:40. Higher titers are indicative of an autoimmune disease" so it must be the level, not whether you have it or not

I want to follow this..... I also tested positive 1:80 but then tested neg after...

Wait, wait, don't worry, Cassia. A LOT of times ANAs are high for no reason at all. There is a lot of literature on this, and, fortunately, 1:80 isn't too high at all. It could be from an acute illness, infection or nothing at all!

My ANA has been as high as 1:640. They did all of the Lupus tests and many other tests, and nothing at all was found. It is just a red herring in my case. My doctor says ANA and AS do not go hand-in-hand AT ALL, and she is very up on AS.

Yes, for some people, even a low ANA can be a sign of Lupus, so it is always wise to rule things out. But, the good news is that for a lot of people, it's nothing at all. If you don't have symptoms of Lupus, then you can definitely feel relieved until it's formally ruled out.

When I had my very first visit to the Rheumy my ANA came back positive for Lupus, Rheumatoid, Sjogren's, and Scleroderma. My Doctor assured me that they were most likely false positives due to the fact that my body was so out of whack. Sure enough after 3 or 4 months of treatment, a second ANA panel came back negative. My Rheumy also took in consideration that I had no symptoms of any of the other diseases.

I HAVE HAD A SPECKLED ANA 1:800 AND I WAS NOT DIAGNOSED SOLIDLY UNTIL 5 YEARS LATER AND WENT THREW ALOT OF DOCS THINKING I WAS CRAZY AND WENT TO A DOC AT UNC WHO HELPED ME I HAVE HAD A SURGERY ON C56 LEVEL WITH A GRAFT AND EBI PLATE.AND 6 SCREWS AND NOW NEED SURGERY FOR C78 LEVEL AND THE C45 ABOVE MY SI JOINTS ARE FUSED AND THE BAMBOO FORMATION HAS ALREADY FORMATED FROM TOP TO BOTTOM

I also had a positive speckled ANA of 1:160 that freaked everybody out for awhile. It went down after I started on anti-inflammatories, so the assumption is that it was just my body going crazy.

I did, and still sometimes do, have a face rash, which they decided was probably rosacea, and swollen lymph nodes, which can go along with SpA as well as lupus.

It is all very confusing and much less cut and dry than it's portrayed in medical textbooks. It does make it slightly easier to understand why diagnoses can take so long.