Can You Have An Autoimmune Disease Without A High Ana?

[ana_22]

can you have an autoimmune disease without a high ANA?

reading the Autoimmune Epidemic at the moment......interesting stuff. just wondering whether my pots could be autoimmune.....had ANA bloods twice they have always come back low.

does ANA determine every autoimmune disease? could my POTS still be autoimmune? how do you know if POTS is autoimmune?

[all4family]

Hi,

What tests did you have? I had a ACHR.gangle.NEUROL.AB which is actually part of a paraneoplastic syndrome antibody screen. that is a different syndrome to do with cancer, but this test also relates to pots. And when I was told that I had a positive test to this the doctor told me they were checking me for a neurological autoimmune disease. So from that I gather that mine is of autoimmune nature. Before this test was performed on me I was tested for lupus, but that was negative. I think that was an ana test. I think I may have had another ana test that was also negative.

Hope this helps.

Suzy

[ramakentesh]

between 70-90% (Grubb) to 30-50% (Stewart) of POTS patients are suspected to have an autoimmune neuropathy that is resulting in their POTS symptoms. That is the immune system is making antibodies that are attacking the peripheral nerves of the legs. This might be causing partial denervation of the nerves that control vasoconstriction in the legs or causing distal overactivity in the remaining nerves.

People with this variety of POTS would be more likely to encounter excessive blood pooling in the legs and possibly arms - which may be apparent through acyanosis or what ever its called.

Some autoimmune disorders such as Ankylosing Spondalitis are not diagnosable through blood tests like ANA, etc. The only diagnostic test is lesions on certain joints.