학술논문

Longitudinal analysis of ANA in the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) Inception Cohort
Document Type
article
Source
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. 81(8)
Subject
Biomedical and Clinical Sciences
Clinical Sciences
Autoimmune Disease
Lupus
Antibodies
Antinuclear
Autoantibodies
Cross-Sectional Studies
Fluorescent Antibody Technique
Indirect
Humans
Lupus Erythematosus
Systemic
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Autoimmunity
Immunology
Public Health and Health Services
Arthritis & Rheumatology
Clinical sciences
Language
Abstract
ObjectivesA perception derived from cross-sectional studies of small systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) cohorts is that there is a marked discrepancy between antinuclear antibody (ANA) assays, which impacts on clinicians' approach to diagnosis and follow-up. We compared three ANA assays in a longitudinal analysis of a large international incident SLE cohort retested regularly and followed for 5 years.MethodsDemographic, clinical and serological data was from 805 SLE patients at enrolment, year 3 and 5. Two HEp-2 indirect immunofluorescence assays (IFA1, IFA2), an ANA ELISA, and SLE-related autoantibodies were performed in one laboratory. Frequencies of positivity, titres or absorbance units (AU), and IFA patterns were compared using McNemar, Wilcoxon and kappa statistics, respectively.ResultsAt enrolment, ANA positivity (≥1:80) was 96.1% by IFA1 (median titre 1:1280 (IQR 1:640-1:5120)), 98.3% by IFA2 (1:2560 (IQR 1:640-1:5120)) and 96.6% by ELISA (176.3 AU (IQR 106.4 AU-203.5 AU)). At least one ANA assay was positive for 99.6% of patients at enrolment. At year 5, ANA positivity by IFAs (IFA1 95.2%; IFA2 98.9%) remained high, while there was a decrease in ELISA positivity (91.3%, p91% agreement in ANA positivity at all time points and ≥71% agreement in IFA patterns between IFA1 and IFA2.ConclusionIn recent-onset SLE, three ANA assays demonstrated commutability with a high proportion of positivity and titres or AU. However, over 5 years follow-up, there was modest variation in ANA assay performance. In clinical situations where the SLE diagnosis is being considered, a negative test by either the ELISA or HEp-2 IFA may require reflex testing.