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ANA PATTERNS

Does an MD know what the ANA patterns mean or would that just be the Rheumatologist knowing?  For example:  For 10 years my ANA pattern was always homogenous and speckled.  Now all of a sudden it just shows nucleolar.

Would my MD know what that meant or would that be just what rheumatologists understand?
13 Responses
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Avatar universal
what does it mean if an ana pattern is diffuse on a test result
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Avatar universal
Why haven't you had a biopsy???????????????????????  Have you thought about it????  Have you had any injuries???????????????  What have been the symptoms you have experienced in your brain due to this?????????  I like you am very worried and scared as I think I have a vasculitis as well and docs don't seem to know much about it.  That is SCARY!!!!!!
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471161 tn?1317190950
I just read your post and I look forward to responding as best I can.  I have a friend staying here until tomorrow and I rarely get to see her.  We are about to go do a few things, it is difficult for me to get out and around a lot on my own right now.  It still makes me nervous my heart rate will go crazy and I will be somewhere and pass out alone.  So, I just wanted to let you know I got this and I will get back to you probably tomorrow.  I hope that's soon enough.  God Bles you and I will in the meantime say a prayer for you.  I hope you do have a good day.
Joni
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Avatar universal
Joni--I am with you regarding doctors--I cannot even get a diagnosis. My own MD brother thinks that I am making stuff up--"too many weird and unrelated symptoms.But among the 50 or so healthcare providers I have encountered there is 101% enthusiastic accord on one thing-get yourself to a shrink, preferably in Somali or Guama--ands that's just about all I get---  
I wonder if I relate to you some of my  symptoms--could you tell me if I am going in the right direction by somehow getting some doctor to just listen to me and maybe do some serious diagnostic work which at least focuses on autoimmune and not on everything else from smallpox to male sterility.... I do not mean to impose so if you just say :no" I will understand. One thing some MDs agree on is that I DO have some sort of autoimmune disorder("idiopathic.")Anyway 5 plus years ago bleeding from my GI system began and was severe enough to require transfusions. No diagnostic technique procedure etc gave even a hint of the" where and why" of the bleed so having nothing more to offer MDs lined up to test me for HIV, hepatitis ABC, Lyme disease, female hemophilia myledyplasia  cancer syphilis and so on. But since I have been reading med books from the age of 12, it was pretty clear to me that I was suffering from some form of vasculitis. Try finding a leaky vessel.or two or five-starting with the esophogus and ending at the sphincter muscle!,However,the condition of the blood confirmed that the blood was coming from small bowel, colon, and rectum. In almost every autoimmune type vasculitis is a grim accompanient.(but I believe only lupus specifies a GI bleed.)  So 3 plus years of transfusions and and then the disease turned to vasculitis of the skin : that is to say that I would have spontaneous eruptions and spontaneous bleeding. (Two doctors actually saw my skin begin bleeding and of course they said nothing because nothing is all that they knew.) And then on Christmas day I was stricken with unendurable pain in shoulder that seemed to radiate both up and down. After 4 hours of screaming I broke my vow and went to ER. The nurses kept asking me why I was screaming--had I been drinking? But that day marked the over-night onslaught of artheritis in multiple joints. One minute a finger is fine, but give it an hour and it is virtually deformed from the swelling. And now I am having small cerebral hemorrages. I just fall down and I cannot get up and/or I am blacked out sometimes  for hours. If purple frozen fingers = Raynaud's phenomenon, I can claim that too.. Inflammation and blood --first bloody nose in my 60 year life (streamed for 45 minutes) and blood in urine ; small hemorrage in eye. Acquired seborraic dermatitis again- over night (if that's what those scalp bumps are.) A few really bad episodes of muscle pain--at night of course. And I have had opportunistic disorders like multilobular pneuomonia and herpes Zoster. But the few ANAs I have had (I had to ask for) and sed rate are only mildly high. And as of this moment I do not have malar rash.I am having genuine fevers--goes to 102 and I quit looking. It is likely that that I ought to have died somewhere along the line, but my life-long atopic dermatitis and asthma saved me: I am frequently tho cautiously on prednisone. I could go on,but I hope you have gotten the picture--and I so much hope (if  possible and not inconvenient) for you to respond to me in some way .(Someday maybe you could explain  the weirdness of my nails and swelling in face, arm. knees.) Nurse story: in Emory Hospital and RN was about to call some sort of crash cart code on me. I managed to avoid that by again and quite politely refreshing her memory re: which number was diastolic and which was systolic..But she won after all--her IV skills gave me two infections and one hematoma.Whatever happensJoni thank you so much for listening to my story -- you are the only one.       Christine/Roswell GA (Excuse spelling; I am getting nutty--my degrees are in English!)
Helpful - 0
471161 tn?1317190950
My ANA supposedly dropped to 640 and then I went in the hospital a week later deathly ill.  In the hospital it was back up to 1280.

I wonder why doctors don't know a lot of things.  I would think there would be a lot of money in knowing more about lupus.  There are a lot of us out here with it.  :(

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Avatar universal
I had read somewhere that when you are going through a flare the ANA level drops.  Just the opposite of what you would think.  This probably explains why my ANA was low the one time and high the other two times.  Gosh, why wouldn't a doctor know this?  
Helpful - 0
471161 tn?1317190950
That was very good info.  I think she is confused because hs epattern has changed over time.  Mine has always been speckled.  What is yours?  Has your ever changed?  Sometimes I think different labs come up with different info.  I have seen it.  A week before I went into a huge flare that attacked my heart I was told my ANA was down from 1280 to 640 and I got excited.  Then about a week later I found myself in the hospital very ill and the hospitals lab said it was 1:1280.  I think labs just screw up at times.  I am going tomorrow to have my Sed Rate checked and my ANA.  I am hoping the sed rate is down since my blood pressure and pulse seem to be better the last few days and I hope my ANA is starting to go down.  That would be AWESOME!  I have been on Imuran a little over a month and I know that's not long but I want to see that ANA going down a little bit.  I want to get off the steroids.....
God Bless you my friends.  I pray for you all each night.  Don't know if He listens to me but I will always try.
Joni
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Avatar universal
I've never had a rim pattern.

For 10 years I've always had homogeneous pattern.  But negative DNA for Lupus.  And for 10 years I have had speckled pattern.

I've never had Diffuse pattern.  But since my regualar doctor did the ANA and pattern which came back nucleolar.  I figure when I get my labwork done in April when I go back to my rheumy, then he can explain.  Once I have answers, then I'll understand more.  Thanks for this great information.
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Avatar universal
I go to my Rheumy in April so I will find out from him about this pattern that I'm trying to figure out and which way I'm going.
Helpful - 0
484160 tn?1343397921
This is the best info I have found on the different patters of ANA.  I found it on fpnotebook.com:

Rim Pattern
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Most Specific)

Homogenous Pattern
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Very specific)
Further evaluation
Anti-dsDNA
Anti-ssDNA
Anti-Smith

Speckled Pattern
Most common, least specific
Disorders
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Mixed Connective Tissue Disease
Scleroderma
Sjogren's Syndrome
Further evaluation
Smith Antibody (Anti-Smith)
Ribonucleoprotein Antibody (Anti-RNP)
Scl-70 kD kinetochore (Anti-Topoisomerase I)
Anti-La (Anti-SSB)

Nucleolar Pattern
Disorders
Scleroderma
CREST syndrome
Further evaluation
Scl-70 kD kinetochore (Anti-Topoisomerase I)
PM-1

Diffuse Pattern
Non-specific pattern
Centromere Pattern
Seen in PSS with CREST syndrome

I hope this is helpful.  It gave me a better understanding of what to ask.
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Avatar universal
Yeah, Joni is right.  I had an encounter with a doc when I was out of work for 2 wks sick and needed a doctors excuse.  He told me I was fine because I drove to the office to see him and he would not give me an excuse.  I broke down and cried.... not in front of him but when I got up to the front desk to check out.  I just couldn't believe someone could be this insensitive to someone who was sick.  The receptionist there was extremely nice and took a liking to me ... I guess she felt sorry for me and she said "Did he just say what I think he said" and I replied "yes".  She said well he only spent 5 minutes with you didn't he?  I said yes.  She told me he was hateful and very few of his patients liked him and she didn't like working for him.  I asked her why she did.  She said she was looking into other things..  She told me what he paid her and it was no where near what she should have been making or could have made somewhere else.  I don't know if she is still working for him or not but I never did go back to him.  I have had docs say all kinds of mean things to me.  Most of the time they tell you it is stress that is one of their favorite things to say to get them off the hook and turn it back onto you.  They tell you that you need to see a psychiatrist and everything else.  They are the ones that need to see a psychiatrist in my opinion.  It seems most of them entered into the medical field for the money and really don't have a very good bed side manner.  Thanks for providing me the opportunity to vent on this subject.  Postie have you found anything out about this yet?  Let us know.
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471161 tn?1317190950
I would research the internet for now but also find a good Rheumy and get with him/her about your questions.  The first MD I went to when I began to get sick didn't even know what an ANA test was.  My friend has lupus and she told me from the beginning I seemed to have the same symptoms she had and needed to ask for an ANA test.  The MD I first went to said, "I don't know what you are talking about" when I asked her to check it.  LOL  What a joke now that I look back.  Doctors like her should not even be able to practice medicine.  She tried to send me back to work saying I recently had Mono and it was all in my head.  Since then I have a definite dx of lupus and have even recently had heart complications.  Be careful of the doctors you choose.  All I can say is surround yourself with a good team, Neurologist, Rheumy, Cardio if needed.  Let me know how you are.
God Bless,
Joni
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Well any MD should know this but as we all very well know it seems they should know alot of things that alot of times they do not.  So, with that being said a rheumy should definitely know the answer to this and if not then there is real trouble.  Have you researched it on the web?  Any luck?  Wish I could help more.
Helpful - 0

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