The effect of antinuclear antibody patterns on antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody test.

ABSTRACT

Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) is used to diagnose and monitor activity in the primary systemic small vessel vasculitides. Serum samples with antinuclear antibody (ANA) interfere with the reading of neutrophil indirect immunofluorescence. The question arises, will ANA pattern affect the results of ANCA test differently?. To answer this question, documents were retrospectively reviewed for the criteria of ANCA test with positive ANA from January 1 to December 31, 2000. Of 137 serum specimens with ANCA and ANA tests, 58 were positive for ANA test. The result showed that the number of positive P-ANCA with homogeneous pattern of ANA (88.9%) was statistically higher than that with speckled pattern (38.78%). In conclusion, there is a different effect of various ANA patterns on ANCA results. A further prospective study is required to confirm this result.