Clinical Significance of Antinuclear Antibody in Patients with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Abstract

The clinical significance of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) in patients with chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) was evaluated. Serum samples of 55 patients with ITP without clinical features of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were examined. The average follow-up period was 5.5 years. Positive ANA was found in 23 of the 55 patients. Twelve of these 23 showed a high-titer of ANA. There was no difference in platelet counts between ANA positive patients and negative patients, and there was no correlation between platelet counts and antibody titers. Ten of the 23 positive sera had precipitating antibodies to nuclear antigens; 7 SS-A and 3 RNP antibodies. The platelet counts of the 7 cases with anti-SS-A antibody positive were slightly low compared with those of the anti-SS-A antibody negative patients. None of the 10 patients developed SLE during the average follow-up period of 8.1 years. These results suggest that ITP patients who have a high-titer of ANA or antibody against SS-A do not allways develop SLE. It was concluded that ANA with a high titer or precipitin to nuclear antigens, particularly SS-A, dose not predict a high risk of developing SLE in the future.