Hi--I was curious what sort of range of numbers some of you have seen with the Anti-Ro/SSA and La/SSB antibodies? I first had mine tested in 2011 and I just had them independently retested out of curiosity. I continue to test negative for the lupus associated ss-a but again tested positive for the ss-b and this time it was slightly higher. Does anyone know if beyond being positive if some import is attached to the actual number in treatment of SJS?
My ss bwas 1.0 with standard of 0.00-0.9 so barely positive. My ss-a was 0.2 with the same range, so negative. The only importance of the number is to confirm diagnosis. Some rheumatologist treat the numbers not the person, I had a couple of those.
I agree Tharrell, blood shouldn't be only guide....but am just curious if any school of thought says anything about higher or lower numbers when antibodies are present..........
Wendyoh .....
Everything I have read indicates that the numbers on the SS-A or the SS-B tests do NOT reflect the severity of Sjogren's Disease.
They are used for diagnostic purposes but not for treating purposes. If it is positive, it is positive no matter what the numbers.
By that I mean, if the test is positive, higher numbers do not mean the disease is more severe and lower numbers do not mean the disease is less severe.
thanks Jasper I was wondering about that :)
I had positive numbers for these two tests back in 2005 when I was in a Sjogrens study at the university of MN. I never saw the numbers. I also had positive numbers in 2006 when my immunologist did all the blood work when I first started seeing him. For the record I had a positive lip biopsy done in 2003 that surprised everyone and was positive. Knew I was sick and that it had to be autoimmune but was surprised at the Sjogrens diagnosis.
Anyway, since then I have had a couple of more Ssa-Ssb blood work and they have been negative. My immunologist said that it doesn't make any difference as he treats the symptoms not the blood work. Also, he said that once the blood is negative for Sjogrens you still have sjogrens. These blood work tests can come and go and are very fickle.
The fact that this blood work comes and goes should tell these docs who don't treat negative blood work patients that they should change their tune. Just because a person has negative blood work doesn't mean that it is never positive. The blood work is sneaky and we don't know it is positive in all those weeks and months when we don't check it. Irish