A 26 year old woman with systemic lupus erythematosus, including malar rash, photosensitivity, and arthritis, developed a cerebrovascular accident and acute myocardial infarction. High titres to antinuclear factor, anti-DNA antibodies, positive Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) test, and anticardiolipin antibodies were found in her serum. A possible association between the presence of...

Rowell Syndrome is a rare presentation of lupus erythematosus manifesting as an eruption erythema multiforme-like papules and plaques with immunological findings positive rheumatoid factor, speckled antinuclear antibodies, and/or anti-Ro/La antibodies. This case highlights the unusual highly debated in 66-year-old woman newly-appearing erythematous, targetoid setting previously diagnosed system...

Sera from 495 pregnant women were examined for toxoplasma antibodies by indirect fluorescent antibody testing (IFAT). Antibodies were positive in 32.7%. Seropositivity was not increased significantly with age but showed a statistically significant rise in accordance with frequency of parity, abortion and contact with cats. The high rate of seronegativity (67.3%) observed in pregnant women ...

Specific double (D-DNA) and single stranded (S-DNA) deoxyribonucleic acid binding cells were demonstrated in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) by rosette formation with antigen coated red blood cells. The proportion of DNA binding cells in the peripheral blood of patients with SLE was significantly higher than that found in a random population ...

We examined sera submitted for autoantibody testing for thyroid microsome antibodies (TMA), elevated thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and free thyroxine concentrations. The frequency of TMA in antinuclear antibody-positive sera was higher (19%) than that in antinuclear antibody-negative sera (12%). Elevated TSH concentrations in serum and subnormal thyroxine concentrations in serum were assoc...

Our laboratory has been developing computer programs that help medical technologists improve their performance of the microscope-based immunofluorescence assay for antinuclear antibodies (ANA). This image-based laboratory test has been associated with poor reproducibility. We have previously described our first program, ANA-Tutor, which systematically teaches the ANA test by using approximately...

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to determine the frequency and antibody titers of nuclear dense fine and cytoplasmic patterns with possible clinical correlation. METHODS From 2007 to 2009, the results of 2,788 autoantibody serological tests were assessed by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) at LAC-HUSM/UFSM, using as substrate HEp-2. RESULTS Among the analyzed samples, 1,998 of them were negati...

It has been more than 50 years since antinuclear antibodies were first discovered and found to be associated with connective tissue diseases. Since then different methods have been described and used for their detection or confirmation. For many decades immunofluorescent antinuclear antibody test has been the "gold standard" in the diagnosis of these disorders. However to increase the sensitivi...

We evaluated 5 commercially available HEp-2 antinuclear antibody (ANA) indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) assays using patient serum samples from 45 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 50 with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 35 with scleroderma, 20 with Sjögren syndrome, 10 with polymyositis, and 100 healthy control subjects. In addition, 12 defined serum samples from the Centers for Disea...

Anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) have traditionally been evaluated using indirect fluorescence assays (IFA) with HEp-2 cells. Quantitative immunoassays (EIA) have replaced the use of HEp-2 cells in some laboratories. Here, we evaluated ANA in 400 consecutive and unselected routinely referred patients using IFA and automated EIA techniques. The IFA results generated by two independent laboratories ...