Clinical analysis of 1801 cases detected antinuclear antibodies

Objective To study the epidemiological characteristics of antinuclear antibodies(ANA) and its association with autoimmune diseases(AID).Methods Detected results of ANA and clinical data in 1 801 cases were analyzed.Results(1)604 cases(33.5%) were positive with ANA,of which 82.5% were female patients.In patients equal with or less than 60 years old,the positive rates were significantly higher in female patients than in male patients,and the positive rate reached the highest level patients of 36-45 years old.(2)The major ANA fluorescence pattern was antinuclear speckled pattern(43.7%).(3)In patients positive with ANA,the positive rate of specific antibodies was 47.8%.The detection rate of specific antibodies with mixed pattern was the highest(57.8%)and the anticytoplasmic pattern was the lowest(12.7%)(P0.01).Specific antibodies could not be identified in patients positive with antinucleolinus,antinuclear membrane,anticentriole and anticentromere pattern.(4)66.2% of ANA-positive patients,yet only 17.0% of ANA-negative patients,were diagnosed as AID(P0.01).73.6% of the mixed pattern group,70.2% of antinuclear pattern group and 36.9% of the anicytoplamic pattern group were diagnosed as AID(P0.01).The positive rate of ANA was significantly higher in systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE) group.Positive rates of ANA in groups of SLE,rheumatoid arthritis(RA),mixed connected tissue disease(MCTD),systemic scleroderma(SS),polymyositis(PM)/dermatomyositis(DM) and overlap syndrome were statistical different with patients without AID(P0.05),whereas there was no statistical difference between ankylosing spondylitis(AS) and Still disease(STILL) patients and patients without AID.The major ANA pattern in SLE,RA and MCTD patients was antinuclear speckled pattern.In patients with ANA titer at least 1:3 200,89.1% were with AID,the ratios were 72.2% and 44.7% in patients with ANA titer at least 1:1 000 and 1:320,and the ratios were statistically different between the there groups(P=0.000).Conclusion The positive rate of ANA in patients of different genders and ages might be different.There could be several fluorescence patterns of ANA,and the detection rate of specific antibodies in patients with different patterns of ANA was different.Specific antibodies could not be identified in part of ANA-positive patients.ANA,especially of high titer,could have great value for diagnosis of AID,but the patterns of ANA were not specific for diagnosis of various AID.