What is an ANA screening

What is an ANA screen?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080929221527AAsUGN4

It stands for Anti-nuclear Antibody. It is a ratio test. It looks for antibodies in your blood that are attacking your good cells and this would be a general screening for autoimmune disorders such as lupus, MS, etc. They can also look at…

What is the significance of a positive ANA screen?

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What+is+ana+positive

10 million Americans have a positive ANA or antinuclear antibody test 1.5 million have a form of lupus. Of all those lupus patients, about 5% will have a negative ANA. The ANA titer is not directly linked to the level of disease activity in…

What is ANA screen reflex with titers vs plain ANA test??

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070725222434AAFd0dS

The titer test tells the strength of the ANA. What your results mean is that they diluted your serum 1:320 and it still gave a positive result. The next dilution they would have done would be 1:640. If they went this far, that was evidently…

Related Questions Answered on Y!Answers

Do you know what an “ANA Screen Test” is? I tested negative, but I thought the result was a number.?

Q:

A: The ANA test is a test for antibodies caused by an autoimmune disease (Lupus, scleroderma, etc). Your Dr would be testing you for the antibodies if they suspected an autoimmune disease. If you tested positive, other than the occasional false positive, that would mean you have the presence of antibodies, therefore; you either have a specific disease or the beginning of the disease, or high exposure to certain diseases can also create antibodies without you actually having the disease itself.If you tested negative that is a good thing. You don’t want an autoimmune disease.That was a lot of disease talk. I hope that helped.

If an ANA screen is negative, does that mean you don’t have an autoimmune disease at all?

Q: Because autoimmune diseases are kind of tricky to diagnose, if your ANA screen was normal/negative, does that mean they didn’t find any autoantibodies? And how accurate are ANA screens? Should I get another one done next time I see my doc? I get weird symptoms. I remember one time my WBC was 10.9 (I was really stressing at the time though) and my AGA levels for celiac disease was a little elevated, but everything else was normal. I heard that AGA levels though aren’t really that accurate. What do you all think? Do you think the ANA screen was accurate? Do you think it takes awhile before anything shows up? I also had a SED rate done, and that was normal too. Can those two tests rule out other autoimmune diseases like celiac and stuff (cause of the inflammation)?Thanks!

A: A negative ANA result makes SLE an unlikely diagnosis. It usually is not necessary to immediately repeat a negative ANA test; however, due to the episodic nature of autoimmune diseases, it may be worthwhile to repeat the ANA test at a future date. Aside from rare cases, further autoantibody (subset) testing is not necessary if a patient has a negative ANA result.In gluten-sensitive individuals AGA testing is a routinely used blood test for possible presence of celiac disease, allergies or idiopathic phenomena. It is best to discuss with your doctor the symptoms that you have.

What is ANA screen reflex with titers vs plain ANA test?

Q: I had a plain ANA that was high then they did the ANA reflex w/titer which also came out positive. I understand that reflex testing means that if one test comes out positive, then they do the next test. The plain ANA came out at 1:320 speckled, but I don’t know what titers means. What’s the difference?

A: The titer test tells the strength of the ANA. What your results mean is that they diluted your serum 1:320 and it still gave a positive result. The next dilution they would have done would be 1:640. If they went this far, that was evidently negative. Speckled has to do with the pattern of the test, from my understanding, has nothing to do with the diagnosis.