Frequency of Repeating Antinuclear Antibody Testing: When Less Is More.

Objectives Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) are autoantibodies that are associated with and ordered to diagnose autoimmune connective tissue disease. ANA have high sensitivity (~98%) but low specificity (~75%), and because they can be found in healthy individuals and non-rheumatologic conditions leading to their elevation, ANA tests are often requested and interpreted inappropriately by clinicians. The aim of this study was to retrospectively assess how frequently ANA testing is repeated in the adult population of Saudi Arabia (SA) and which factors are associated with and lead to inappropriate testing.