False Negative On Lab Work?

[ddschool]

I've just been to Duke, and as usual, all my labwork came back negative (Lupus, Sjorgens, RA, blood cx), despite me continuing to have fevers, chest pain, fatigue, headache, nausea, etc. it seems as though no one can ever find anything wrong me, however, w/ as bad as I always feel, something has to be up. I've always thought I had Lupus, but lab work says no.

Is it possible to have false negative lab work?

[Chaos]

It's definitely possible to have mistakes made on lab reports. I think a lot of us have negative results on most of our lab work though and share that frustration of "never having anything show up as being wrong" despite how bad we feel. Sorry you're having to deal with this frustration on top of feeling so badly.

[Soulshine]

Well, it is very rare to have sero-negative lupus but not impossible. Sero-neg Rheumatoid Arthritis is more common than SLE, but still pretty rare. In most cases where people present with symptoms before positive lab work, something will show up later on. Some lupus patients are ana-neg but diagnosed with lupus nephritis through a kidney biopsy. So just because you arent showing the AI markers doesnt mean it isnt doing damage to your organs yet. I'm assuming if you went to Duke they looked for the uncommon antibodies too.

Also, Adult Onset Stills disease is something I've been tested for before my ANA's started popping consistently pos.

It presents with daily fevers, urticaria-like hives, and joint pain. It doesnt show up on the normal AI work up...takes a little digging and a lot of ruling out to find. But if you have exhausted all ideas maybe its worth mentioning and looking into.

I hope the knowledge fairies sprinkle smart dust all over your doctors Good luck getting some answers. Trying to diagnose my AI issues was/is harder than diagnosing my dysautonomia!

[leydengs]

Holy lord I ALWAYS get negative lab work. I swear that every single test I've ever had, blood work, mris, spinal taps, test for addisons, eegs, ekg, colonoscopy etc, etc, etc everything comes back negative/normal. Well I take that back the tilt table test was the only positive I got. Now if a doctor says he's going to run a test I get annoyed and think "What's the point, it's going to be normal!" Don't get me wrong I don't want to have someone bad wrong with me but I'd just like to know what is going on!!

Also I was told the same thing that Chaos is talking about, when I was in the hospital they thought I had MS even though all tests came back saying I did they said that I just may not have any lesions "yet" so it is possible.

Stay positive photograherrn!!!! Good luck and keep us posted!