GP asked me to make appt to discuss blood results high ANA)

[Freeekedout]

Hi, I have been experiencing a lot of pain on waking in the joints of one hand, which wears off through the day. I’m also experiencing fatigue and brain fog. I’m 47 and have been under massive stress for the past 12 months. I haven’t felt right for a while but the pain in my hand is getting worse and starting to impact my daily activities.

The gp sent me for a blood test and has asked me to make an appointment to discuss the results. Having looked at my results I’m wondering what the concern might be - I’d rather go prepared to the appointment then I can think about whether there are questions I have rather than trying to do it in the moment.

The ANA panel is the only result that I can see that is high. Can anyone shed any light please? I don’t want to fall down a Dr Google spiral into doom and gloom! Thanks.

It's a screen for autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis (amongst other things, but these would be relevant for you) x

Thank you. Rheumatoid arthritis would fit with the pain in my hand. I’ll make an appointment and see where we’re go from here. I wonder if intense stress might have triggered whatever it is. I’m pretty healthy and kept going and kept going, maybe this is a response to all the stress!

Stress can absolutely trigger autoimmune issues, so that also fits. Best of luck x

That’s a strange ANA to decipher and a lot of the population have a mildly positive result. Ask what the pattern was because that is more subjective of what it could be than how high it is.

Thanks Spring.

Fizzy, that’s what I was thinking - anything I’ve seen online seems to talk about ratios as in 1:40, 1:1500 etc. I wondered if there was a conversion that needs to be done to give me the equivalent sort of ratio.

Probably not much help trying to second guess, just need to try and get an appointment. I didn’t want to be worrying if I could reassure myself a bit but I can’t put out into a contract with the info that I’ve got.

I’ve never heard of a conversion. My ANA is 1:320 but I believe 1:80 is considered a low positive but also a result that can be considered a false positive in some. 1:160 and higher is where you can be pretty sure there is something else going on (although in my early days of seeking a diagnosis, I started at 1:80 so it could just be a waiting game to see what happens). Can you call your surgery and ask for the pattern and ratio?

Good luck getting the answers and I hope you feel get some support to help soon.

As others have said the pattern is important as it narrows down which arthritis you have. Both myself and a friend had terrible hand pains positive ANA mine is a speckled pattern and I have mixed connective tissue disease. My friend has psoriatic arthritis. My mum has similar symptoms and has sjogrens disease.
As you can see there are quite a lot of things that can cause similar symptoms you really need referral to a rheumatologist to up pick the symptoms and get a diagnosis.

Thanks both. I called the surgery to make an appointment so I’m going next week. I asked the receptionist if she had any more information about the ratio or pattern and she said there wasn’t anything that she could tell me that I didn’t know already, so I’ll have to wait until Wednesday. Thanks to you though I know the sports of things I need to be asking the GP.