Clinical significance of serum ANA and A-dsDNA in SLE patients assessed by Immunogold-silver Staining

Objective To investigate the clinical significance in detecting the anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) and anti-double stranded DNA (A-dsDNA) in the sera of patients with SLE. Methods The ANA and A-dsDNA antibodies in the sera of SLE patients were detected by immunogold-silver staining (IGSS) and Dot-IGSS. Results The positive rates of ANA and A-dsDNA were 98.2% and 77.2% respectively in 169 patients with active SLE, and 72.2% and 15.9% respectively in 44 inactive cases. The positive rates of ANA and A-dsDNA were significantly higher in the active cases than in the inactive cases, and as well were the titers of ANA (P0.01). The incidence of renal involvement was higher in the A-dsDNA positive cases than in the negative ones (64.3% vs. 31.0%, P0.01), but the incidence was not related to the positive rate of ANA (P0.05). Conclusion Higher titers of ANA and A-dsDNA suggest the SLE patients be in active stage, positive A-dsDNA indicats a likelihood of renal damage, but negative reaction to A-dsDNA does not rule out SLE.