Lynda?: pos. ANA, C 4 deficient and Lupus diagnosis

[Guest guest]

Dear Lynda,

or anyone who knows about a Lupus Diagnosis and the blood work that

goes with it. My ANA is positive for the third time but I don't know

the titer. It's usually been low, 1:40, which 5% of the population

supposedly can have a pos. ANA at that titer without it meaning

anything. However, my Complement 4 is now also deficient and that is

a very rare thing. It is 14 in a normal range of 16-47. I have had

an elevate Sed rate of 23, but it is down again now at 6. I got

most of the Lupus symptoms and know it takes a long time to get the

diagnosis. But aside from the symptoms which my dr. said I had all

the symptoms accept the only system that he could not detect was

chest pain. Well I've since had some horrendous chest pain. I've

also found out that subcutaneous lupus rash can be very ithcy.

Remeber I posted about it the other day?

Also here are a few pieces of articles I copied concerning C4 and the

diagnosis of lupus. It says that it is rare to be deficient in C4

and if you have that with a positive ANA it adds to your diagnosis of

Lupus. Please read...

Complete C4 deficiency is rare. Two genes, C4A and C4B, encode the

C4 complement. Both genes are highly polymorphic, and, to date, at

least 35 different alleles have been described. Almost all the

patients with complete C4 deficiency have discoid or systemic lupus

erythematosus, with or without associated glomerulonephritis.

In contrast to the frequent partial or complete C4A or C4B

deficiencies, complete deficiencies of both C4A and C4B in an

individual is rare (23, 24, 40, 41, 42, 43). Complete C4 deficiency

is almost invariably discovered first in individuals or family

members with SLE or other autoimmune disease (17). Most completeC4-

deficient patients regularly suffer recurrent bacterial or viral

infections, are photosensitive, and have early onset lupus or lupus-

like diseases (17).

Complement C4 can be deficient in anywhere from 11% to 80% in the

population with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus compared to 1% of the

general population with a C4 deficiency . If your blood complement

values or the C3 or C4 levels are low (immune complex processing),

AND you also have a positive ANA, weight is added to the diagnosis of

lupus. Low C3 and C4 complement serum levels in individuals with a

positive ANA may also signify the presence of lupus nephritis (

kidney disease) to your doctor.

What I have to do is wait for the titer of the ANA to come back.

This is the 3rd or 4th time I've had a pos. ANA. The titer must be

more impressive for him to make a lupus diagnosis I'm sure. I will

have to wait until Mon. or Tues. I'll be seeing myGP andRhuemy this

week. There may be a chance of Kidney involvement when you are C4

deficient.

See complements are something that is used up to fight Lupus. My C3

is still okay but has also dropped from 123 to 107 in a normal range

of 90-180. The disease could be progressing in me because these

numbers are dropping.

And I'm still horrendously itchy and can't go without steroid cream.

I could go into the other numerous symptoms of lupus I have but I

think we mostly know them here.

Anyone have any comments, on if I have enough evidence with a C4

deficiency for it to be lupus? I'm holding my breath for the ANA

titer.

Thanks for letting me share.

K.