lupus

[pepperbird]

A question for anyone out there who has a background in medicine...

 

 

Is it possible for someone to receive a positive ANA and Smith antibody tests and not have lupus?

 

 

I have sjoren's and scleroderma, and my most recent antibody tests were positive for SS-A (Ro) , Ss-B (La) and anticentromere B. All that was expected. The positive Smith was test not. I did have low levels of dsDNA, Ribosomal P, RNP, Scl-70 and Jo-1, but they weren't enough to be flagged.

 

Can other autoimmune disease also cause positive Smith and ANA results?

[elaine567]

Sounds like Anti Smith antibody is associated with disease activity.

Is your SLE worse at present?

 

https://ard.bmj.com/content/78/Suppl_2/1724.3

 

Anti-Smith (Sm) antibody is a highly specific antibody for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

 

Conclusions This study suggests that anti-Sm antibody level is associated with disease activity in patients with new-onset SLE, and that monitoring of anti-Sm antibody levels could help assess the disease activity.

 

and

https://lupus.bmj.com/content/6/Suppl_1/A90.1?int_source=trendmd&int_medium=cpc&int_campaign=usage-042019

Conclusions Persistence of anti-Sm antibody for 12 months was associated with higher disease activity at the corresponding time. Follow-up of anti-Sm antibody can be useful to evaluate the remained disease activity in patients with new-onset SLE.

[elaine567]

Mixed connective-tissue disease has the presence of Anti Smith antibodies too but also RNP.

[amaysngrace]

My friend has Lyme but for a while they were treating her for lupus. I’m not sure what tests were given for them to come to the conclusion of lupus though.

[BC1980]

An ANA is a general test. It's not specific to any autoimmune disease. It's really just used to determine if a patient needs a more detailed workup. Basically, a positive ANA tells us that you probably have an autoimmune disease, but we don't know what kind. So yes, a person could have a positive ANA and not have lupus.