RESEARCH - Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) in the oldest-old women and men

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J Autoimmun. 2006 Dec 5; [Epub ahead of print]

Antinuclear antibodies in the oldest-old women and men.

Nilsson BO, Skogh T, Ernerudh J, Johansson B, Lofgren S, Wikby A, Dahle C.

Department of Infectious Diseases, Ryhov Hospital, Jonkoping, Sweden;

Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Molecular and Clinical

Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linkoping University, Linkoping,

Sweden.

The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of antinuclear

antibodies (ANA) in very old individuals (>/=86years of age) with healthy

younger (18-68years) blood donors (n=200) regarding gender, health status,

ratio of circulating CD4/CD8 cells and cytomegalovirus (CMV) serology.

Frozen plasma was used for ANA detection in two study groups, i.e. 'OCTO'

(97 persons aged 86-92 years, 65% women) and 'NONA' (136 persons aged

86-95 years, 70% women). OCTO participants were recruited on the basis that

they were healthy or moderately healthy according to a selection protocol.

No exclusion criteria regarding health status were applied in the NONA

sample. The prevalence of ANA was significantly higher in the oldest-old

samples compared to blood donors. There was no association between health

status and the presence of ANA in the oldest-old. The difference across age

was most pronounced in men, with low levels at younger age, whereas the

prevalence among the oldest-old men reached similar levels as in women.

There were no associations between the presence of ANA and CD4/CD8 ratio or

with CMV status in the oldest-old. Our findings confirm an increased

prevalence of ANA in the oldest-old, and emphasize the importance of taking

gender and age into consideration when evaluating ANA.

PMID: 17156973

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=PubMed & list_uids=1\

7156973

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