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PREVALENCE OF ANTI-NUCLEAR ANTIBODY IN THE INDIAN POPULATION: A TERTIARY REFERENCE LABORATORY STUDY

Background: Autoimmune diseases are known to be the third leading cause of fatality and morbidity amongst the
population of industrialized world. They account for 3-9% of health burden in general people, but information regarding
prevalence of autoantibodies and autoimmune diseases in developing nations is scarce. To study the prevalence of Anti-nuclear antibodies, Aim:
the total number and distribution of different tests used in the diagnosis of anti-nuclear antibody amongst Indian population, and correlate the
ndings from these tests with the clinical characteristics of the patients. Retrospective data was evaluated from a Global Reference Method:
Diagnostic Laboratory in Mumbai, for a period of 6 years. This included a total of 285095 cases tested for ANA. ANA-IFA and ANA-ELISA
were the screening tests used while ANA-ELISA Prole and ANA Blot were the conrmatory tests. ANA by IFA was the most preferred Results:
screening test (88.73%) and ANA by Blot was the most preferred Conrmatory test (67.13%) based on their sensitivity and positive predictive
value respectively. ANA-IFA showed positivity of 36.48% and ANA by ELISA test had positivity of 11.46%. In conrmatory testing, ANA Blot
showed a positivity of 31.90% and ELISA Prole had 23.36% positivity. Females showed signicantly higher positivity for both the screening
test and Conrmatory tests than males (p<0.001). Screening by ANA IFA and Conrmatory by Conclusion: ANA Blot was the most preferred
tests in our study population. These tests were found to be better for diagnosis, sub-syndrome categorization, prognosis, clinical follow-up and
therapeutic strategies in various autoimmune disorders.