We report a case of right-sided hemichorea associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in a female patient who presented with involuntary movements of hand and foot, without any other manifestation of SLE. Further workup showed positive tests for antinuclear antibody, anti-Smith antibody, anti-dsDNA, and antiphospholipid antibody (aPL). The patient was started on aspirin and hydroxychlor...

BACKGROUND Children are commonly referred to a pediatric rheumatology center for the laboratory finding of an Anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) of undetermined significance. Previous studies regarding adult rheumatology patients have supported an association between ANA and anti-thyroid antibodies, with the prevalence of thyroid antibodies being significantly higher in patients referred to a rheumato...

The immunofluorescent technique was employed to evaluate the sensitivity of 10 human and animal cell monolayers and tissue sections as substrates for titering the antinuclear antibody content of serum samples. The highest mean ranks of sensitivity, the relative ability of each substrate to maintain its sensitivity rank when 21 selected positive sera were tested, were achieved by two fibroblast ...

A group of 29 hypertensive patients were studied for side effects of acebutolol. An antinuclear antibody titre of >/=1/64 developed in 23 per cent of patients during a 12-month course of treatment. Full ophthalmic examination before and after the treatment period showed a statistically significant increase in tear secretion at one year. One patient had a slight worsening of her psoriasis. No pa...

OBJECTIVE To assess the usefulness of the indirect immunofluorescence antinuclear antibody test (FANA) using human laryngeal epithelial carcinoma cells as nuclear substrate, to screen for childhood rheumatic diseases. STUDY DESIGN A review of all FANA tests performed on children at British Columbia's Children's Hospital between 7 March 1991 and 31 July 1995. RESULTS FANA tests were positive...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a typical autoimmune disease that's characterized by various autoantibodies to nuclear and cytoplasmic antigens. The presence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) in serum is generally considered a decisive diagnostic sign of SLE. However, a small subset of SLE patients who had the typical clinical features of SLE was reported to show persistently negative ANA t...

There are overwhelming data supporting the inflammatory origin of some epilepsies (e.g., Rasmussen's encephalitis and limbic encephalitis). Inflammatory epilepsies with an autoimmune component are characterized by autoantibodies against membrane-bound, intracellular or secreted proteins (e.g., voltage gated potassium channels). Comparably, little is known regarding autoantibodies targeting nucl...