Anti-Nuclear Antibodies
(ANA)

An ANA test looks for antinuclear antibodies in your blood. If the test finds antinuclear antibodies in your blood, it may mean you have an autoimmune disorder. An autoimmune disorder causes your immune system to attack your own cells, tissues, and/or organs by mistake. These disorders can cause serious health problems.

Sample Type:

Serum

Uses:

An ANA test is used to help diagnose autoimmune disorders, including:

• Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE): This is the most common type of lupus, a chronic disease affecting multiple parts of the body, including the joints, blood vessels, kidneys, and brain.

• Rheumatoid arthritis, a condition that causes pain and swelling of the joints, mostly in the hands and feet

• Scleroderma, a rare disease affecting the skin, joints, and blood vessels

• Sjogren’s syndrome, a rare disease affecting the body’s moisture-making glands

Precautions:

don’t need any special preparations for an ANA test.

Interfering factors:

A negative ANA reading means no autoantibodies are present in the body. However, a positive ANA reading alone does not indicate an autoimmune disease.

• The prevalence of ANAs in healthy individuals is about 3 - 15%. The production of these autoantibodies is strongly age-dependent and increases to 10 - 37% in healthy persons over the age of 65. Even healthy people with viral infections can have a positive ANA, albeit for a short time.

• Some medications can cause a positive ANA. It is important to talk with your doctor about all the drugs you are taking - prescription, over the counter, and street.

• Other conditions, such as cancer, can cause a positive ANA.

Pre analytical errors:

• Clotted specimens or those obtained with the wrong anticoagulant

• Inappropriately filled test tubes

• Inappropriately stored blood

• Hyperlipidemic, icteric or hemolyzed blood

• Hct >55%

Corrective Action:

• Mix thoroughly by gentle inversion and follow proper order of draw (Na citrate)

• Make sure that test tube fills up to the mark indicated on the top of the tube

• Must be tested within 4 hours and do not refrigerate. If not received in our lab within 4 hours of collection, sample must be centrifuged and platelet-poor plasma removed from cells and transferred to an aliquot tube and freeze at -20°C and deliver to the lab on dry ice within 2 weeks.

• Centrifuging before sample is clotted

• Patients with a hematocrit level >55% must have a special tube made to adjust for the hematocrit

Post Analytical errors:

• Result reporting

• Result interpretation

• Result distribution

Reference Range:

negative