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AAP Grand Rounds 2:38-39 (1999)
© 1999 American Academy of Pediatrics

RHEUMATOLOGY

ANA Titers: What Is Normal?

Source: Craig WY, Ledue TB, Johnson AM, Ritchie RF. The distribution of antinuclear antibody titers in "normal" children and adults. J Rheum. 1999;26(4):914–919.

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Many children are referred to pediatric rheumatologists because laboratory testing revealed a "positive ANA." These referrals are based on data obtained in the 1970–80s which concluded that children who have positive antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) usually develop identifiable autoimmune diseases.1 These conclusions were valid for ANA titers performed by the traditional "tissue ANA" method which used rat kidney as substrate. For the past decade, however, the substrate used to test for ANA has been Hep II cells, a human cell line. The use of Hep II cells has made it possible to detect a wide spectrum of antibodies (anti-centromere, anti-nucleolar, etc) but the test has a higher false positive rate than the tissue ANA. Tan et al . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Suzanne Bowyer, MD, FAAP
Rheumatology, James Whitcomb Riley Hospital, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN