Just curious if anyone here has ever had a panel of general autoimmune labs – one of the most common autoimmune labs is called Antinuclear Antibody (ANA). I’ve always had a weakly positive ANA result but no other indications of autoimmune disease so its treated as a false positive, but I’m wondering if anyone else either has a comorbid autoimmune condition or some of these nonspecific noisy indicators of autoimmunity that are more or less treated as false positives
Yes, I had autoimmune blood work done a couple of years ago because of sudden intense arthritis flare-up in my hands. Several tests came back above normal range and I was referred to a rheumatologist. She advised that I don’t have rheumatoid arthritis or lupus (good news!) but that my osteoarthritis is inflammatory in nature. That didn’t surprise me since I’ve had issues with chronic pain and early-onset arthritis for decades. A subsequent blood test came back closer to normal range – I suspect it fluctuates. I have no idea if it has anything to do with VM. It’s all a big mystery I’ve learned to live with.
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wow – thanks for sharing! thats very interesting. I have a lot of scarring in my ears of an unknown source and have always tested positive for ANA but, like you, didn’t really rise to the level of a full blown autoimmune condition. A lot of rheumatology is unfortunately like this where the process of autoimmunity is actually quite fuzzy and the rigid diagnoses can’t really account for the full spectrum of disease.
Given my scarring, I’m looking into IGG4 related disease which is a less known, milder autoimmune condition. I don’t think it will change my treatment for VM given that I assume any inner-ear damage is permanent, but it would be interesting to know
I tested positive after a sudden sensorineural hearing loss.Vestibular migraines came later in my health journey.
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ANA, I’m assuming? That’s interesting – thank you for sharing. Hope you’re doing better
My autoimmunity started 2 years after my initial vestibular ‘episode’. I’ve not had the bloods you’re talking about, but I thought mentioning as the specialist I saw said they thought it had been caused by the trauma on my body of the vestibular attack (I was hospitalised etc). I had nothing before that time. I’ve seen functional medical practitioners since and they’ve all had the same opinion. So I thought might be worth mentioning.
Whereabouts is this exactly?
Allegedly near tympanic membrane – I’ve been asked if I had frequent ear infections as a child (I did have them, but not excessively).
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Internally (middle ear) or externally (outer ear canal)?