Anti-nuclear antibodies in some arthropathy

ABSTRACT

Testing for antinuclear antibodies are useful in evaluation of autoimmune disorders. Anti-nuclear antibodies are detected by a variety of techniques including indirect immuno-fluorescence, enzyme immuno-fluorescence, enzyme immunocytochemistry, and ELISA. In this study, anti-n-DAN quick test was performed on 127 patients who are treated at Rheumatology Department of Bach Mai Hospital from December 1997 to February 1999. Diagnosis in each of these disorders was based on the American College of Rheumatology criteria (ACR). The results shown that, anti-n-nDNA was positive in 84.6% patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 24.4% patients with systemic sclerosis and only 8.3% patients with rheumatoid arthritis, respectively. Anti-n-DNA quick test is simply and easy to perform but specificity and sensitivity of this method are still limited to compare with others.