Positive ANA

[Christina3964]

Hi,
I am a 25 year old female, with a positive ANA. I started having symptoms about a year ago including: severe joint, bone, and muscle pain, and stiffness, severe fatigue, dizziness, fainting spells, swelling in my hands and feet, headaches, intermittent hair loss, chest pain, and a heaviness in my chest causing a difficulty to breath. I went to my Doctor, and had a battery of blood test run, and found that I had an ANA reading of 6.4, high sed rate, white blood cell count, high platelet count, and a positive titer for CMV. I was sent to a Rheumatologist, who did much of nothing, and told me to come back in six months. During the course of six months my PCP continued to test my ANA, which was higher than 4 every time it was checked, along with a high sed rate. Last week I went to see a different Rhuem. and he said that all of my additional tests for Lupus was negative, accept for my high ANA. He said I had symptoms of Fibromyalgia, and a positive ANA, and that was my diagnosis. He told me to come back in a year to have everything retested. Meanwhile, I have been unable to work for a year, and my symptoms are getting worse. What could this be?

[PlateletGal]

I think it is about 5% of the population who will have a positive ANA, but no physical symptoms. I'm just wondering why you had the test done in the first place ? Were you having any symptoms then ?

I can tell you that 29% of fibromyalgia patients have a positive ANA titer and some autoimmunity problems.

Best,

PlateletGal

[cino]

I have had a positive ANA of 640 since the age of 17, and now I am 56. For years i had nothing wrong, and the doctors have taken various tests and have found no reason for the high ANA. They called it a "red herring" which meant there was no explained reason behind this. The told me that as long as it was dormant in my body, there was no harm. I starting getting various problems in the year 2000 and after years of tests, was sent to 7 Specialist, including a Rheumatologist. He did various tests, and came up with the 'red herring" saying again. However, he did diagnose me with severe fibromyalgia stage 4 pain, and after years of trying to help with various pain killers, etc, and nothing helped, I turned into what he called a "functional cripple" and was put on a disability pension. Whether the high ANA had anything to do with, he didnt actually say. However, my daughter also has a high ANA of 640, and she had a bone marrow biopsy and they found she has ITP......so sometimes you have to wonder...

[PlateletGal]

P.S. ~ Feel free to check out the fibromyalgia / CFS forum. I am the community leader there. I don't have fibro... at least not primary (I have CFS and autoimmunity issues), but you can pose your question to other fibro patients. IMO though.... it sounds like what you have is not fibromyalgia.

[PlateletGal]

I think you should see another rheumatologist because to my knowledge, the majority of fibromyalgia patients do not have a high sed rate. The ones who do have inflammation, normally have another autoimmune condition.

Your rheumatologist isn't doing enough for you... IMO. Your ANA titer is not low... it is very high (I have the same titer). I've read that sometimes it can take awhile before your lab results start to show which autoimmune disease you have.

Some of these rheuamtologists have been such a disappointment.