Guest guest Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 hi .. yea .. I know .. ANA tests .. confusing as heck isn't it? Let me see if I can explain it better .. (please someone correct me if I am wrong here .. working on brain fog this morning!) When the lab tests your blood sample for ANA cells, they don't just test the plain blood. They take a a couple of droplets and dilute them with another liquid, usually alcohol. A result of 1:20 reads 1 to 20 .. or 1 drop of blood to 20 drops of alcohol. If they see ANA cells, then they dilute it again .. doubling the amount of alcohol each time.. then they read the results again .. and if they see more cells, then they dilute it again .. and again .. and again .. until they see NO more cells. So .. 1:20 is usually where they start (remember to read it as 1 to 20) For some reason only known to the phlebotomists (smiles .. the vampires who draw our blood), on the higher readings such as 1:160 they will leave off the zero. Not always, but sometimes. So your reading of 1:16 is really 1:160 .. (1 to 160 = 1 drop of blood to 160 drops of alcohol). There were so many cells in your blood that it took a whole lot more alcohol to dilute the sample enough where no cells showed up. I hope this helped you some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 Great explanation , just to tag on to what she said. ANA itself stands for anti nuclear antibody. This is one of the antibodies produced in diseases like lupus that targets the nucleus of the cells. Hence the name, anti " nuclear " . Higher concentrations usually indicate more disease activity. I hope this helped a little bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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