Guest guest Posted October 20, 2003 Report Share Posted October 20, 2003 Hi Ralph, I can give you insight about your ANA - I do these laboratory tests for a living. A result that says that you are <7.5 IU / mL means that your blood showed that you are below the cutoff value of reportable numbers. That means that your number falls between 0 and 7.5 international units per miliLiter. But because the instrument is unable to accurately calculate a number below 7.5 IU / mL, they just lump these together and report it as <7.5. Another lab may report it out as just " negative " without giving the actual number. A doctor would interpret this as being " no doubt about it negative " for ANA antibodies by the method that the lab used to test your blood. There are different methods for doing ANAs, and some detect antibodies better or worse than others. If you are still concerned about the possibility of ANA antibodies ask that your blood be analyzed by a different method. The " immunofluorescence " also known as IFA, is the gold standard and what most Rheumatologist recommend. Laurie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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