ANA, Anti-Nuclear Antibody, test. Anyone had one?

[[Be...]]

I'm curious if anyone has had this test done while being symptomatic with benzo withdrawal either while on or off the pills?  I had a positive result with a titer of 1:650 with a homogenous pattern while in tolerance withdrawal.  Did you get further testing?  What was your diagnosis? 

[[Su...]]

Becksblue, I have had this test all through my life starting in my 20's and now 62. I have had tests for Lupus, Sjogren's syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, etc, in the beginning, all neg.  I was told it is a non specific test for auto immunity, inflammation and alone, it may mean nothing and is not diagnostic to a specific disease tho many autoimmune diseases can cause a person to have an abnormal result.   

 

My numbers and pattern have varied throughout the years widely but it is always abnormal.  For years they could never find anything so I just lived my life and was retested Regularly but was always ok...I did have mono in college and got high Epstein Barr titer from that and in my mind, I think that is when my problems started with ANA test results.

 

Oddly since being on benzos I got dx'd with fibromyalgia and sjogrens ....don't know if any correlation whatsoever or whether I was prone due to abnormal ANA.  It is a big unknown as this test is seen abnormal in normal people but I would want to check further if I were you.  Just for peace of mind, a very difficult thing to come by in withdrawing from these poisons....

 

since it is such a non specific test, you might want to talk to your Dr about a referral to a rheumatologist for some further testing.  it may be not indicative of anything to worry about and we sure don't need more to worry about in benzo world but I would not ignore it either....I wish you the best and don't get too concerned simply because it is so non specific.  All the best on your journey!  :)Suzuka9

[[ra...]]

You have to know that ANA testing is meaningless unless you also test for ENA wich is usually done at the same time. If your are ANA positive, you have to be ALSO positive in one of ENA test subtypes (called ENA panel); each ENA subtypes is associated with a specific illness, like the anti-sm which is associated with SLE. I was ANA positive but all the the ENA subtypes ( mainly 6) were negative and I had no symptoms correlated with ANA/ENA and so was dismised.

[[Be...]]

ANA obviously wasn't meaningless when my Neurologist did the test and it came back positive with a homogenous pattern.  It's a good general test for abnormal autoantibodies.  From that result, I was then referred to a Rheumatologist who ran more specific tests and then diagnosed me with Lupus and then from those tests a Hematologist diagnosed me with Thrombophilia.  The ANA pattern helps to confirm the diagnosis then.  No one ran an ENA test on me.