Are the specific and nonspecific ANA staining patterns of Behçet's Disease patients important?

Background: The autoinflammatory character of Behçet's Disease has led researchers to investigate the role of autoantibodies. However, no significant positive result has been reported for autoantibody tests for the disease.

Aims: To investigate the specific and nonspecific staining patterns of Behçet's Disease (BD) patients.

Methods: 140 patients (87 females, 53 males) with an average of 41.9±3 years who were being followed up for Behçet's Disease, and a control group consisting of a total of 736 (464 females, 272 males) healthy volunteers made up of blood donors without any disease whose average age was 50.2±4 years were included in the study. Peripheral venous blood was collected from the patients and the sera were separated. Patient sera were studied by indirect immunofluorescence antibody test (IFA) at a dilution of 1/40 and 1/100.

Results: A total of 140 (87 females, 53 males) Behçet's Disease patients and 736 (464 females, 272 males) healthy controls were examined. The rate of ANA positivity was 11.6% in the control group and 10.7% in the Behçet's Disease group. In general, no difference was detected between the patients and the healthy controls in terms of autoantibody positivity (p>0.05). However, when examined in terms of patterns, the low detection of DFS70 and the observation of centriole staining type patterns in Behçet's Disease patients was noteworthy (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Autoantibody tests, which hold an important place in classic autoimmune diseases, are not necessary for Behçet's patients, but they should be examined in terms of nonspecific patterns.