Abstract

Immunologic evaluation of patients for autoimmune diseases begins with the search for humoral or cellular immune components that is directed against the patient's oven tissues. In Korea no study has been made on the clinical significance of ANA titer and nuclear staning pattern which are shown by the specimens tested by indirect immunofluorescent technique. From January to December, 1980, 471 serum specimens were obtained from patients who were supected to have autoimmune diseases. The specimens were tested by indirect immunofluorescent technique. The following results were obtained. 1) There were 52 ANA positive specimens. Among these, 28 were low, 7 intermediate and 17 high titers. 2) All SLE patients, scleroderma Patients and the majority of rheumatoid arthritis patients showed high titers, while other diseases (Table 2) showed low titers. 3) The majority of SLE patients stowed homogenous pattern. 4) The ANA test was a more sensitive indicator than LE cell test or anti DNA test in the detection of SLE. From this study it is concluded that the ANA test is a very sensitive test in the detection of autoimmune diseases, SLE in particular, but the specificity is relatively low. In this connection, the titers and patterns of ANA test are quite helpful to increase its specificity.