Great response @A MyLupusTeam Member! I agree with a lot of what she says. The speckled pattern is one of many that can be seen with lupus, but the anti-dsDNA and anti-Smith antibodies are the more specific and seen ONLY in lupus. ANA can be seen in a variety of autoimmune diseases.

With serious kidney disease, a biopsy is often needed for a definitive diagnosis and can definitely prove lupus if it's causing your kidney disease. Good luck Kimberly--you've been through so much! Blessings and hugs.

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A MyLupus...

This happens to me also. Keep a journal of all your symptoms. When you see your doctors they can read it. I have told my doctors this is my body these are my symptoms. I understand how frustrating it can be when you want a answer and when you leave the doctors office there was no answers. I hope you have a blessed evening

Actually, the presence of anti-dsDNA antibodies is NOT specific to SLE, just highly suggestive of it. Low titers (concentrations) of anti-dsDNA antibodies can be present in other autoimmune diseases and a small percentage (< 1%) of normal, healthy people can also test positive for it. As for the anti-Sm antibody test, that is highly specific of SLE. Unfortunately, only about 30% of patients with SLE will test positive for it; the other 70% of patients WITH SLE won't. For the anti-dsDNA, the values are reversed. 70% of SLE patients will test positive for anti-dsDNA antibodies, while 30% of SLE patients won't. This is part of the reason why it's so hard to diagnose SLE. Talk to rheumie. And check out this article at: https://www.lupus.org/resources/diagnosing-lupu.... Other useful information can also be found on the lupus.org website.

Hi Kimberly, it sounds like you've been put through the ringer! One of the most aggravating things about figuring out if you have lupus (specifically SLE) or not is that there is no single marker that can be used to diagnose it. This includes the ANA test, which can be positive for many different diseases and can also be positive in a small (< 5% or so) percent of normal, healthy people. So many symptoms of lupus are also symptoms for other illnesses which means that a diagnosis of lupus is a diagnosis of exclusion (of other illnesses, which often do have very specific markers). A positive ANA with a speckled pattern is an indication you might have lupus, but by itself, does not mean you have it.

A positive ANA test in addition to other criteria is used to diagnose lupus. Talk with your rheumatologist about what those are. Did she run an anti-dsDNA test? This is more indicative of lupus, but again, not a marker by itself. In a person who has been diagnosed with lupus, a positive ANA result indicates that the disease is active, but when lupus is in remission, either true remission or drug-controlled, a negative ANA result can occur. However, the negative result doesn't mean that you don't have lupus, it just means that it's not currently active. If I'm remembering right, the one exception to the "no single marker' is a diagnosis of lupus nephritis. If you have lupus nephritis then you have lupus. Are you under the care of a nephrologist? Have you had a kidney biopsy done? Talk to your doc about it. I have lupus and kidney issues, but I don't have lupus nephritis, instead I have IgA Nephropathy. If you haven't had a kidney biopsy done, don't sweat it, it's a same day procedure. They give you some good drugs, you'll feel a pinch and after a couple of minutes, it's done. They hang on to you for several hours afterwards just to make sure there's no bleeding. I hope this helps!

My ana is speckled and nucleolar. I have lupus and inflammatory arthritis