Review Article
Current Concepts and Future Directions for the Assessment of Autoantibodies to Cellular Antigens Referred to as Anti-Nuclear Antibodies
Table 5
Advantages and disadvantages of the HEp-2 ANA test.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Variety of different target autoantigens (>100) | Subjectivity | Some autoantibodies can be identified without confirmatory testing (i.e., anti-centromere) | Poorly standardized across manufacturers | Discovery tool for novel autoantibodies | Requires training and expertise | Useful for a spectrum autoimmune diseases (i.e., autoimmune hepatitis) | Low sensitivity for certain clinically important autoantibodies (i.e., Jo-1, ribosomal P, SS-A/Ro60, Ro52/TRIM21) | ā | Low specificity (high false positive rate) |
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