Re: My Birthmother has a + ANA

[Guest guest]

Jeanne, your birthmother's ANA doesn't sound strongly positive, and the

chance that an ANA test will be positive, even in a seemingly healthy

person, increases with advancing age. Her history of joint inflammation

and rashes is possibly more significant. What have her physicians told

her about the arthritis and rashes in the past? Has she ever seen a

dermatologist? Rashes can have so many causes that to link the weak ANA

with it and suspect lupus would be a stretch.

There is much confusion about the ANA test, both among doctors and

patients. A positive ANA is in no way specific to lupus. The reason for

the confusion is that if a person does in fact have lupus, there is

almost a 100% chance that they will have a positive ANA. But people

forget that lupus is a relatively rare condition and there could be many

other reasons for a positive ANA. Some estimates are that about 30% of

people with RA have a positive ANA (and it doesn't mean they have lupus,

too!).

Following is a link to a great article entitled " Tired, aching,

ANA-positive: Does your patient have lupus or fibromyalgia? " I know we

aren't really talking about fibromyalgia, but the author makes some

excellent points about the ease with which ANA test results are

misinterpreted:

http://www.ccjm.org/pdffiles/Blumental202.pdf

The author, Blumenthal, provides many interesting statistics. For

example, in one study:

" Craig et al found an ANA titer of at least 1:64 in 15% of healthy women

younger than 40 years and 24% of women age 40 or older. "

As far as the genetic component of lupus goes, DNA.com has great

articles on the subject.

According to Dr. ph Ahearn:

" It's safe to say that Lupus is several diseases--there are probably

many ways that an individual can get Lupus. There are probably many

different genetic pathways that can lead to Lupus, and within those

pathways, there can be a number of genes. The pathway for one individual

may be very different genetically than that of another individual...

First of all, there's one family of genes that are the complement

genes. C1q, C1r, C1s, C4, C2 and complement receptors, particularly CR1.

The other family of proteins involved is FcR (FcReceptor genes). Those

would be the primary candidates involved in clearing complexes. "

http://65.161.124.110/eventTranscripts/eventTranscript.jsp?link=200009071700.htm\

& site=dna

There are many other genes suspected. For more on this:

http://65.161.124.110/diseaseArticle/diseaseArticle.jsp?site=dna & link=Lupus.htm

[ ] My Birthmother has a + ANA

> Me again!

> I just thought I'd share something with all of you. I'm adopted, and

> have been in contact with my birthmother for 9 years now. Anyways, my

> recent symptoms have prompted her to dig into her past health history

> and labs. She has learned that as of Summer '00, she is ANA +. She

> had a titre of 1:60. Is this anything? She said her doctor felt her

> labs were unremarkable, so she never knew this until this week when

> she requested her labs. She's had a history of joint inflamation and

> rashes. Sounds pretty darn suspicious to us!! Anyways, was wondering

> if anyone can tell me the genetic marker in Lupus?

>

> ~Jeanne