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Observational Study
. 2022 Feb;42(2):261-271.
doi: 10.1007/s00296-021-05033-9. Epub 2021 Nov 10.

Analysis of the impact of sex and age on the variation in the prevalence of antinuclear autoantibodies in Polish population: a nationwide observational, cross-sectional study

Paweł Krzemień  1 , Sławomir Kasperczyk  2 , Maciej Banach  3 , Aleksandra Kasperczyk  2 , Michał Dobrakowski  2 , Tomasz Tomasik  4 , Adam Windak  4 , Mirosław Mastej  5 , Alberico Catapano  6 , Kausik K Ray  7 , Dimitri P Mikhailidis  8 , Peter P Toth  9   10 , George Howard  11 , Gregory Y H Lip  12   13 , Maciej Tomaszewski  14 , Fadi J Charchar  15 , Naveed Sattar  16 , Bryan Williams  17 , Thomas M MacDonald  18 , Peter E Penson  19   20 , Jacek J Jóźwiak  21 ; LIPIDOGRAM2015 Investigators
Collaborators, Affiliations
Observational Study

Analysis of the impact of sex and age on the variation in the prevalence of antinuclear autoantibodies in Polish population: a nationwide observational, cross-sectional study

Paweł Krzemień et al. Rheumatol Int. 2022 Feb.

Abstract

The detection of antinuclear autoantibody (ANA) is dependent on many factors and varies between the populations. The aim of the study was first to assess the prevalence of ANA in the Polish adult population depending on age, sex and the cutoff threshold used for the results obtained. Second, we estimated the occurrence of individual types of ANA-staining patterns. We tested 1731 patient samples using commercially available IIFA using two cutoff thresholds of 1:100 and 1:160. We found ANA in 260 participants (15.0%), but the percentage of positive results strongly depended on the cutoff level. For a cutoff threshold 1:100, the positive population was 19.5% and for the 1:160 cutoff threshold, it was 11.7%. The most prevalent ANA-staining pattern was AC-2 Dense Fine speckled (50%), followed by AC-21 Reticular/AMA (14.38%) ANA more common in women (72%); 64% of ANA-positive patients were over 50 years of age. ANA prevalence in the Polish population is at a level observed in other highly developed countries and is more prevalent in women and elderly individuals. To reduce the number of positive results released, we suggest that Polish laboratories should set 1:160 as the cutoff threshold.

Keywords: Age; Antinuclear antibodies; Cutoff threshold; Indirect immunofluorescence assay; Prevalence; Sex.

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Conflict of interest statement

Jacek Jóźwiak and Maciej Banach have received an unrestricted educational grant from Valeant, and have served as a consultant or speaker for Valeant. Paweł Krzemień is employed by Euroimmun Polska Sp. z o.o., (Wroclaw, Poland), whose autoantibody reagents were used in the study. Peter E. Penson owns four shares in AstraZeneca PLC and has received honoraria and/or travel reimbursement for events sponsored by AKCEA, Amgen, AMRYT, Link Medical, Mylan, Napp, Sanofi. All the others authors declare no conflicts of interest concerning the results of this analysis.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Frequency analysis comparing the 1:100 and 1:160 groups (n = 260) in terms of final ANA titer
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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