Help with blood results

[Sam1140]

Morning everyone,

Has anyone had a medium Positive for ana? I have symtpoms of lupus but unsure of the results got a 4-5 month wait to see rheumatologist
Thank you

My positive ANA result was similar to yours (and the follow up tests normal/negative like yours) and my GP refused to refer me to rheumatology despite all sorts of autoimmune-ish symptoms – they said it would be rejected as a weak referral, I guess due to the follow up tests (ENA, DS DNA etc) not showing anything.
I've read that ANA results of 1:500 or more are more suggestive of auotimmune diseases like Lupus.

The ANA result is quite a generic antibody test so a positive reading on its own doesn’t always indicate autoimmune disease and you would unlikely get a lupus diagnosis from this alone as some people will test positive for ANA and not have autoimmune disease. You have a mild positive showing a homogenous pattern which can occur in connective tissue diseases like lupus and scleroderma. You mentioned having lupus symptoms as well so given the mild positive result I suspect it’s more likely you have autoimmune disease and that’s why you are being referred to a rheumatologist.
The other tests results you’ve had done SSA, SSB, RNP, SCL70 etc are more detailed antibody tests that will be run if there is a positive ANA and are more specific antibodies that relate to lupus and connective tissue diseases but these appear to be negative in your case.
I have scleroderma (similar autoimmune disease to lupus) and had a similar weak positive result to you but upon the further testing also had positive SCL70 antibodies present. The rheumatologist will probably want to go through your symptoms in conjunction with your blood test result to decide on a diagnosis

Thank you for your reply. I had a blood test done in 2019 which was ana weak positive 1:80 then another one Dec 2020 medium Positive 1:320 unsure if that means anything. Not nice having these symtpoms. Sorry to hear about your diagnosis . Are you getting treated now?
I had another lupis and ra blood test done today x

I’m obviously not a dr but I would assume the fact that you’ve got symptoms and a positive ANA over a prolonged period of time would also make it more likely you have autoimmune disease. I think they retested my ANA a few times to check it wasn’t raised by a virus or something. Sorry to hear you are feeling unwell- hopefully the rheumatologist will be able to shed some light on it for you. I was unwell and undiagnosed for quite a few years and felt really rough and ended up giving up work at the time. I now take hydroxychloroquine and manage stress better (that seems to be a big trigger for me) and feel a lot better. Keep on persevering with the drs/rheumatologist and hopefully it will make a difference for you x