The universe of ANA testing: a case for point-of-care ANA testing

• DOI: 10.1007/s13317-017-0093-6
• Publication Date: 2017-03-21T04:47:57Z
• Authors: Konstantin N. Kon...; Robert L. Rubin
• Keywords: 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Rheumatology; Immunology; Review Article; 3. Good health

Testing for total antinuclear antibodies (ANA) is a critical tool for diagnosis and management of autoimmune diseases at both the primary care and subspecialty settings. Repurposing of ANA from a test for lupus to a test for any autoimmune condition has driven the increase in ANA requests. Changes in ANA referral patterns include early or subclinical autoimmune disease detection in patients with low pre-test probability and use of negative ANA results to rule out underlying autoimmune disease. A positive result can lead to further diagnostic considerations. Currently, ANA tests are performed in centralized laboratories; an alternative would be ANA testing at the clinical point-of-care (POC). By virtue of its near real-time data collection capability, low cost, and ease of use, we believe the POC ANA has the potential to enable a new paradigm shift in autoimmune serology testing.