ANA staining pattern

Most ANA staining patterns of antibody binding (eg homogeneous or speckled) are subjective and nonspecific for inflammatory connective tissue disease; however, the centromere and nucleolar patterns are linked to systemic sclerosis.

The recently described dense fine speckled (DFS) ANA staining pattern can be mistaken for a homogeneous pattern, so specialist interpretation is important. Anti-DFS70 antibodies are significantly more common in healthy individuals than in people with an inflammatory connective tissue disease. Even when anti-DFS70 antibodies are present in high titre, provided it is the only antibody detected, an inflammatory connective tissue disease is very unlikely in patients with mild, nonspecific symptoms (ie a low pretest probability). Long-term follow-up and repeat testing is not required in these individuals.