Anti-DFS70/LEDGF antibodies are more prevalent in healthy individuals compared to patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

Objective: Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) are a serological hallmark of systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARD) such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). While a number of ANA patterns detected by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) have diagnostic significance, autoantibodies producing the dense fine speckled (DFS) pattern have been reported to be more prevalent in healthy individuals than in SARD.

Methods: Sequential samples submitted for ANA testing were screened for anti-DFS antibodies by IIF (n = 3263).