Advice on ANA

[ladylou_uk]

Hi all I'm hoping someone can give me some advice! I have ME and Fibromyalgia, but last October I started to feel a lot worse, and my bloods started coming back abnormal - abnormal CRP, ESR, thryoid... eventually, in January, my doctor did some antibody tests. My ANA came back weakly positive - 1/40 titre, speckled. I had to move doctors right after the test as I was moving house. New GP says it means nothing. I'm just a bit worried that my pain, fatigue etc could be coming from something else, like lupus. Should the GP be retesting these bloods at any point? Nothing has been mentioned and I don't really want to brush this result under the carpet, even if it is only weakly positive. Thought I'd post and ask for any opinions

Thanks!

Lou

[misty14]

Hi Lou

What a pity you moved house after those blood results and have found a new GP who doesn't sound very understanding. ANA, although not a definitive test , does indicate there's something going on in your immune system so if your health suddenly worsens it would be worth getting a referral to a Rheumatologist who would re-test you and take account of your history!. Who diagnosed ME and Fibro?. Lupus can be mis- diagnosed as ME as they are such similar conditions!. Hope I've helped. X

[Gwilsoncfc in reply to misty14]

Hi sounds like we might be in the same boat - see my post of today on here . Good luck

[MrsMouseSJ]

Hi ladylou. It sounds a little like my own history - I was diagnosed with ME 10 years ago, was initially very ill indeed, improved somewhat and struggled along for several years, but then suddenly took a turn for the worse - with fever, unrelenting bad throat, too tired to do more than shuffle about the house, etc. My then GP ran all the immune tests within his gift. All was normal bar ANA, which came back as 'mildly positive'. No doubt you are aware a positive ANA can occur in a variety of situations, including seemingly healthy people. With nothing very conclusive showing, we left things. In hindsight I wish I had asked for a referral to a rheumatologist. Through a twist of fate I ended up finally seeing a rheumy, who is puzzled but is running with the term 'atypical Lupus' and I am now being given Plaquenil, which is helping. This wouldn't be available to me if I was still labouring under the ME label. So I think there is definitely stuff to 'play for' here. Although I think it is important to try to do your 'homework' beforehand and find out which rheumys available to you have a specific interest in Lupus, otherwise you may be wasting your energy. I imagine Lupus UK would help you here, or posting again on this forum. Hope things work out well for you.

[Gwilsoncfc in reply to MrsMouseSJ]

Thanks that's helped me too

[MrsMouseSJ]

Glad to be of some help. I have just seen your earlier post, too. I do wonder how many people are not sure precisely what they have - and end up between the labels of ME and Lupus. Or maybe one can have both? (I certainly have post exertional malaise and ME-like exercise intolerance; does this also occur with Lupus?? Looking on PubMed I see studies in the 1990s suggest not, but then, if they are anything like the quality of a lot of the stuff that has been done on ME, they may be misleading. I am thinking here of the PACE trial and the like!) And I wonder how many with ME might benefit from trying Plaquenil, were it to be made available to them? Ah, well, enough of my musings....

[Gwilsoncfc in reply to MrsMouseSJ]

Thanks for your comments - very helpful