ANA positive can turn negative ANA

[DGHL]

I had a severe allergy reaction and found ANA positive 4 months ago. Had a lot of issues joint and muscles pain. Breathing difficulties and chest pain etc. Now my Dr asked to repeat the test. It is negative. But my issues never went off. I am badly suffering with body pains, blood sugar up and down time to time, bad breast pain and my chest also pain. There are bad skin irritation and wounds. I can't understand what is going on. .what should I do now.

[whisperit]

Hello DGHL

I have no idea what is going on for you, but ANA results can change according to how active your auto-immune condition is - for example, after treatment. But some people even have negative ANA despite having active disease. Clearly, you are still suffering, so my first thought would be to ask your doctor how s/he accounts for your symptom picture. Have you looked at the LupusUK leaflets on the "home" page here - especially the one on symptoms and diagnosis? That might help you get a sense of what tests etc will be helpful.

Let us know how things go in any case x

[Hidden]

Hi there. Did your doctor only repeat ANA or take other blood tests too? My doctor never took ANA when I first went to see him with intense pain in wrists and knees. He took full blood count, ESR, CRP and Rheumatoid Factor. These were all positive so he referred me straight to Rheumatology.

Later they repeated RF and it had gone up a bit but only tested me for ANA and others at my rheum’s request a year later when I’d already been on 3 antirheumatic meds disease. All came back negative. Later, off all meds, my ANA was very positive but RF was negative. These things can fluctuate.

Also possible is that the pain receptors become skewed so that we can keep feeling the pain even after the inflammatory condition has remitted. This is called Fibromyalgia.

But as there are diseases such as RA and Sjögren’s which can present very similarly to Lupus it is important that your doctor runs the full battery of tests including inflammation and all autoantibodies before assuming you have some form of chronic pain.

[Chanpreet_Walia LUPUS UK]

Hi DGHL,

Welcome to the LUPUS UK HealthUnlocked Community!

It is possible for results to become ‘negative’ due to lower disease activity, control of the disease (through medication) and other possible factors.

Have you been tested for lupus? Click here to read the specific blood tests and criteria that are required in order to make a diagnosis of lupus: lupusuk.org.uk/getting-diag...

Are you receiving any treatment for your symptoms? We published some information on various topics with regards to lupus which I hope you will find useful:

Joints/muscles: lupusuk.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Pain management: lupusuk.org.uk/pain-managem...

Skin: lupusuk.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Heart/Lungs: lupusuk.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Please keep us updated, wishing you all the best.