Lupus panel results - how accurately does it tell you if you have lupus?

Not at all: Lupus is a disease that affects many organ systems in the body. There are 11 criteria that help make the diagnosis and if 4 of 11 are present it fulfills the criteria to make a diagnosis. A lupus panel is a panel of lab tests indicating the presence of an ANA and other autoantibodies. This test is only one criteria out of the 11. A positive ANA may be seen in many dieases besides lupus and some p.

Lab + Clinical: I have many patients followed for years with one or two positives on the lupus panel and no disease whatsoever. We do not know if we are having false positives or seeing very early possibility of disease, that make take years to show any features. The degree of positivity is however correlated with activity.