Results of ANA testing according to medical requesting specialties - a retrospective analysis of a large sample of patients referred for autoantibodies testing.

Abstract

BACKGROUNDAntinuclear antibody (ANA) test is the most requested exam for the diagnostic evaluation of autoimmune diseases. The number of medical specialties that use ANA in the investigation of organ-specific and non-organ specific autoimmune diseases has increased progressively in recent decades. The objective of this work was to determine the medical specialties that most request ANA and the patterns more frequently associated with the requesting specialties.