Objective: To provide information on the prevalence and possible clinical association in a Chinese population for medical practice of the dense fine speckled pattern (DFS pattern).
Methods: A retrospective study was conducted with patients who had the DFS pattern from June 2018 to December 2019 in West China Hospital.
Results: A total of 469 patients (1.27% of patients with positive anti-nuclear antibody indirect immunofluorescence (ANA IIF) test results) revealed the DFS pattern, of which 92.96% had isolated DFS pattern and 23.67% had titers above/equal to 1:320. The average age of patients with the DFS pattern was 43.45 years, and females accounted for 76.97% of them. Ten different kinds of diseases made up the vast majority of the disease spectrum, in which inflammatory or infectious diseases (46.11%), mental diseases (21.45%), and systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs) (18.23%) ranked in the top three. The most common SARDs were rheumatoid arthritis (RA), undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD), and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Forty-six patients (10.55%) had positive or suspicious extractable nuclear antigen (ENA) antibodies test results and a higher risk of suffering from SARDs. Forty-seven patients would be missed if the DFS pattern with negative ENA antibodies test result was considered as exclusion criterion of SARDs.
Conclusions: The DFS pattern is basically isolated and with low titer. It is unwise to exclude the diagnosis of SARDs only depending on the appearance of the DFS pattern. Autoimmune diseases-related antibodies, clinical information of patients, and long-term follow-up are of great importance to avoid missed or delayed diagnosis of SARDs.
Keywords: dense fine speckled pattern; exclusion criterion; systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases.
© 2021 The Authors. Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.