Elevated ANA and chiari

[Stephiec79]

Hi everyone. I got some bloodwork results back today. I guess my ANA was positive, but it's non-specific and in a speckled pattern (whatever that means). My question is: is there any correlation between auto-immune markers and chiari?
Thank you!
Steph

[LisaM46]

Here's a kicker... about 11 years ago, I had human parvovirus b19.  It completely hijacked my blood work!  I tested (false) positive for double stranded dna, positive for ana's, I produced antigens for CREST, scleroderma, Sjogren's, MCTD, and for about nine months, they were thinking I had lupus.   (I could pull the paperwork, but speckled, blah, blah, blah... I was very freaked out!)

Anyway, finally, just about three years ago, my blood panel came back CLEAN!  Negative for everything.  So - maybe a virus for you?  Can you ask to be checked for human parvovirus b19? (man... when I first had it, I had so much joint pain, I was certain I had bone cancer!)  In children, it's called Fifths Disease, and is usually benign then.

Lisa

[selmaS]

What are autoimmune disorders?
Autoimmune disorders are diseases caused by the body producing an inappropriate immune response against its own tissues. Sometimes the immune system will cease to recognize one or more of the body's normal constituents as "self" and will create autoantibodies – antibodies that attack its own cells, tissues, and/or organs. This causes inflammation and damage and it leads to autoimmune disorders.

The cause of autoimmune diseases is unknown, but it appears that there is an inherited predisposition to develop autoimmune disease in many cases. In a few types of autoimmune disease (such as rheumatic fever), a bacteria or virus triggers an immune response, and the antibodies or T-cells attack normal cells because they have some part of their structure that resembles a part of the structure of the infecting microorganism.

Autoimmune disorders fall into two general types: those that damage many organs (systemic autoimmune diseases) and those where only a single organ or tissue is directly damaged by the autoimmune process (localized). However, the distinctions become blurred as the effect of localized autoimmune disorders frequently extends beyond the targeted tissues, indirectly affecting other body organs and systems. Some of the most common types of autoimmune disorders include:

Systemic Autoimmune Diseases

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Juvenile RA (JRA) (joints; less commonly lung, skin)
Lupus [Systemic Lupus Erythematosus] (skin, joints, kidneys, heart, brain, red blood cells, other)
Scleroderma (skin, intestine, less commonly lung)
Sjögren's syndrome (salivary glands, tear glands, joints)
Goodpasture's syndrome (lungs, kidneys)
Wegener's granulomatosis (blood vessels, sinuses, lungs, kidneys)
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (large muscle groups)
Guillain-Barre syndrome (nervous system)
Localized Autoimmune Diseases

Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (pancreas islets)
Hashimoto's thyroiditis, Graves' disease (thyroid)
Celiac disease, Crohn's disease, Ulcerative colitis (GI tract)
Multiple sclerosis (There is still some debate as to whether MS is an autoimmune disease.)
Addison's disease (adrenal)
Primary biliary cirrhosis, Sclerosing cholangitis, Autoimmune hepatitis (liver)
Temporal Arteritis / Giant Cell Arteritis (arteries of the head and neck)

Many of us even after getting our Chiari dx, we r tested for many of the conditions on the above list to rule them out as symptoms r the same  if not similar in how it affects the person .

[selmaS]

Hi, most definitely!!

Many have RA which  is auto immune...Hashimoto's thyroiditis is also common among chiarians which is also auto immune....

Some also deal with connective tissue conditions as well like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Joint Hypermobility Syndrome.

"selma"

[n40066]

yep!  most of us have one auto immune isorder or another...actually, most of us have multiple!