Determination of Antinuclear Antibody and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in Selected Patients Attending University Medical Center (Sickbay) A.B.U, Zaria Nigeria

Abstract

SLE is an auto-immune disease that is largely under-reported in most developing countries as the syndrome often resembles rheumatoid arthritis. This research was therefore carried out to determine, the level of Antinuclear, Antibody (ANA) in patients with suspected Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) in University Medical Center (Sickbay) Samaru, Zaria. Out of 100 blood samples collected, 23 samples (23%) were tested positive for SLE and 77 samples (77%) were tested negative for SLE. Then 92 out of the 100 samples were also screened for ANA, where 55 samples (59.8%) were found to be positive and 37 samples (40.2%) were tested negative for ANA.  From ANA positive patients, 22 (40%) were found to be SLE positive and 33 (60%) were found to be SLE negative, while among ANA negative patients none was found to be SLE positive and 37 (100%) were found to be SLE negative. Age-range of 31-40years had the highest prevalence among the SLE patients with 7 (46.7%) positive and below 20 and above 50 years had the lowest prevalence. Among the ANA positive patients, age range of 31-40 years had the highest prevalence of 21 (85.7%) and above 50 years had the lowest 9 (34.6%) prevalence. Hepatitis patients had the highest prevalence 8 (57.1%) among the SLE positive patients. Finally, this research revealed that female patients had the highest prevalence with a total of 20 positive (33.3%) out of the 23 SLE positive patients and also female patients had the highest prevalence of 37 (66.9%) out of the 55 patients tested positive for ANA. In respect to this, females should therefore avoid doing things that will increase the risk of infections since they are at high risk of been infected. It is therefore recommended among others that ANA tests should be recommended as major diagnosis of SLE as the disease is confirmed to be the major triggering factor for ANA.

Keywords: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Antinuclear, Antibody (ANA), rheumatoid arthritis