Clinical value of antinuclear antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis

Volkova M.V., Kunder A.V., Generalov I.I., Senkovich S.A., Roggenbuck D.

Belorussian medical academy of post-graduate education, Minsk, Belarus
Vitebsk state medical university, Vitebsk, Belarus
Brandenburg technical university, Senftenberg, Germany

The aim of work was to assess the incidence and types of antinuclear antibody (ANA) in with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and examine the relationships between the presence of antibodies and clinical manifestations of the disease. Methods. In the study 105 patients with RA were included. ANA were determined by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) on automatized digital AKLIDES systems, specific ANA were detected by AKLIDES Cytobead platform. Results. Positive nuclear staining of ANA was determined in 38 patients (36.2%), negative in 67 patients (63.8%). The incidence of ANA in RA was significantly higher than in healthy individuals (p=0.0001). Speckled pattern was the most frequent. Positive results of determination of specific autoantibodies to at least 1 nuclear antigen were found in 39.47% of ANA-positive patients. There were no significant differences in clinical and laboratory characteristics between ANA-positive and ANA-negative patients (p>0,05). However, systemic manifestations were observed three times more often in ANA-positive RA (p=0.0073). Conclusions. ANA occurs in a third of patients with RA, indicating the intensity of autoimmunity in RA and the possible role of ANA as an independent biomarker of RA. Standardized evaluation of ANA by IIF allows to obtain comparable data without the influence of subjective factors, which greatly simplifies the research of ANA as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in RA.