Antinuclear Antibodies (ANA)

ANA (Antinuclear Antibodies) Test

Results

An antinuclear antibody (ANA) test measures the amount and pattern of antibodies in your blood that work against your own body (autoimmune). If there are more antibodies in the blood than normal, the test is positive. When the test is positive, most labs do other tests right away to look for the cause. These tests can find out which antibodies are in the blood in higher amounts than normal.

Positive test

A positive ANA test may be caused by:

• Autoimmune connective tissue diseases. Examples include:
  • Rheumatoid arthritis. More than one-third of people with rheumatoid arthritis have a positive ANA test.
  • Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Almost all people with SLE have a positive ANA test . But most people with a positive ANA test do not have SLE.
  • Scleroderma.
  • Sjögren's syndrome.
  • Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
  • Polymyositis.
  • Raynaud's syndrome.
• Autoimmune diseases of other organs. Examples include:
  • Addison's disease.
  • Diseases of the blood cells, such as vitamin B12 deficiency, idiopathic thrombocytopenia (ITP), and hemolytic anemia.
  • Liver disease, such as hepatitis.
  • Thyroid disease, such as Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
• Medicines, such as those used to treat high blood pressure, heart disease, and tuberculosis (TB).
• Viral infections.

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Author:	Shannon Erstad, MBA/MPH	Last Updated: June 12, 2008
Medical Review:	Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine Stanford M. Shoor, MD - Rheumatology
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