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Diagnosis
Many people have problems obtaining a correct diagnosis. A lot of times the first word you will hear, is that your ANA came back high. ANA stands for antinuclear antibody. It is a very common antibody found in a person with an autoimmune disease. There are approximately 50 to 60 different autoimmune diseases that an ANA can be found in. Some of the more common conditions are Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, scleroderma, anti-phospholipid syndrome and also Sjogren's. Additionally, there are hundreds of other antibodies that can point to an autoimmune condition. The rarer the condition the harder the time you'll have getting a proper diagnosis. If you have had a positive ANA, it is likely that you have an autoimmune disease. Please also note that there is such a thing called sero negative autoimmune diseases. What that means is that you do not have the antinuclear antibody. That does not mean that you don't still have an autoimmune disease, it means you just do not have the antibody. About 15% of the population are sero negative.
Barbara, Founder of the Autoimmune Information Network and multiple autoimmune disease patient.
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