Edupath Newsletter August 2020 – Autoimmune disease
Autoimmune conditions pose a diagnostic challenge as the presenting clinical symptoms may be non-specific, vary
from patient to patient and often overlap. Moreover, there is no single diagnostic test for any one autoimmune
disease. Diagnosis is most often based on a combination of clinical information, patient history, laboratory testing and
in some cases imaging studies. Laboratory testing includes relatively non-specific antinuclear antibody (ANA)
testing and/or tests for individual antibodies that are more disease specific.