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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffAn ANA test detects proteins called antinuclear antibodies in your blood. Your immune system normally makes antibodies to help you fight infection. The antibodies detected in an ANA test are different. They may attack your body's own tissues.
A positive ANA test indicates that your immune system has launched a misdirected attack on your own healthy tissue — in other words, an autoimmune reaction. Because connective tissue is often the target of autoimmune reactions, the resulting diseases are known as connective tissue diseases. Examples include lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and scleroderma.
The result of an ANA test doesn't prove that you do or do not have a connective tissue disease. Along with other tests, an ANA test helps narrow the range of possible diagnoses if other factors suggest that your illness is the result of an autoimmune reaction.
- The antinuclear antibody test: What it means. Lupus Foundation. http://www.lupus.org/webmodules/webarticlesnet/templates/new_empty.aspx?articleid=402&zoneid=76. Accessed Aug. 2, 2009.
- Kavanaugh R, et al. Guidelines for clinical use of the antinuclear antibody test and tests for specific autoantibodies to nuclear antigens. Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. http://www.cap.org/apps/docs/committees/immunology/arpa_124_10_71.pdf. Accessed Aug. 2, 2009.
- Antinuclear antibody (ANA) test. In: Fischbach F. Manual of Laboratory & Diagnostic Tests. 7th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2004. http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com/spa/ovidweb.cgi. Accessed Aug. 2, 2009.
- Laboratory reference values. Normal values. Rochester, Minn.: Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. 2004. Accessed Aug. 3, 2009.
