Histone antibodies?

[eina]

I had the full antibody workup a while back and came back with a positive histone antibody. Does that mean anything, especially in the absence of any other antibodies? I know it's associated with drug-induced lupus but the only medication I was on was Armour Thyroid. I asked my rheumatologist about it and she said it was probably what was giving me a positive ANA but didn't elaborate.

Is it ever positive in any other illnesses? I'm having trouble finding much info about it outside of DILE.

Thanks!

[Tharrell]

From quick search I did the hystone antibodies are more common in MCTD or scleroderma, but can happen in sle and drug induced sle as well as ra.
Here is the article:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/anti-histone-antibodies

[eina]

Your link was very helpful, thank you!

[snoweye]

Eina, do you have positive ANA or high levels of any other inflammatory markers?

[eina]

Yes, my ANA has come up positive for about 5 years, it's not ever super high though. The lab cutoff is <1.0 and it's typically between 1.3 and 1.8.

[cccourt1942]

I would suggest asking the physician what he was looking for when ordering said test.  I don't think that panel is used to determine SjS.  Not sure if you went in offering symptoms, or what the purpose of the visit was...but why would he/she offer that for all the other conditions if your symptoms are indicative of SjS?
ccc

[eina]

It was actually not my rheumatologist who did all the antibody panels, it was a vascular specialist I was seeing for erythromelalgia and Raynaud's. He ran 15 separate antibodies on top of all the vascular testing. In the end he kind of just shoved my test results at me and said I wasn't in his wheelhouse and to look elsewhere for answers, so my rheumatologist is the one I asked about the histone result later on. She's the one who gave me a kind of vague answer about it being the reason my ANA was positive.