An overall understanding on the significance of ANA patterns can assist in diagnosis and predict organs involvement. There are less studies on association of ANA patterns with autoantibodies and symptoms among patients of different age groups, especially in the newly diagnosed patients, which can hardly influenced by treatment, and the results can better reflect the difference and association. In addition, the relationship between age of onset and symptoms is controversial. In this study, we detect the relationship of age of onset and ANA patterns with autoantibodies and clinical features in initial patients to do early diagnosis and targeted treatment timely to postpone the development of SLE and avoid the organ injury as soon as possible.
Anti-dsDNA and anti-Sm antibodies are included in ACR criteria for SLE because of their high specificity. In this study, we found lower presence of them in patients with late-onset SLE compared to those with early-onset ASLE, which conformed to previous studies by Riveros Frutos A et al7 and Boddaert J et al13. It may explain delayed diagnosis of late-onset patients. But the results of some early researches were inconsistent or contradictory to our findings 14, 9. Meanwhile, anti-R52 antibody was more prevalent in patients with early-onset ASLE than those with JSLE, which was also observed in other study4. The relationship of autoantibodies with age is controversial, which could be explained by different grouping methods, course of disease and ethnicity. The correlation among autoantibodies was detected by cluster analysis, and the autoantibodies were classified into 4 clusters, which were essentially comparable with earlier findings15.
Incidence of malar rash in patients with early-onset SLE compared to late-onset SLE, consistent with previous studies7,9,10. Malar rash, as an initial presentation, was rarer with increasing age according to our results, and it was regarded as an important reason for missed-diagnosis of late-onset SLE10. Patients with early-onset ASLE were more likely to present alopecia than patients with late-onset SLE, as earlier researches reported8,14. It may be attribute to the rarity of skin rash in patients with late-onset SLE16. In addition, patients with late-onset SLE were more likely to develop ILD. It was consistent with previous studies that have reported more pulmonary manifestation in patients with late-onset SLE8. ILD was usually seen in patients with a long history of SLE17. Late-onset SLE is often delayed diagnosis8, which was also found in this study. Therefore, it may be the possible explanation of higher incidence of ILD in patients with late-onset SLE.
In our study, we found that patients with early-onset ASLE had inferior renal function, and patients with late-onset SLE had the worst renal function at the time of initial diagnosis, which may be attributed to the effects of SLE or degenerative changes. It could explain the higher levels of Alb observed in patients with JSLE in our study. However, a study by Abdel-Nabi HH et al. did not show significant differences in SCr and BUN levels between patients with JSLE and ASLE18. This discrepancy could be due to variations in ethnicity and study design. Although reports suggest a lower incidence of severe symptoms in patients with late-onset SLE8, it's important to remain cautious about the potential for more serious kidney damage. Our findings also revealed that disease activity was lower in patients with late-onset SLE compared to those with early-onset ASLE, which is consistent with previous research7. According to our results, C-Reactive Protein (CRP) levels were lower in patients with JSLE than in other age groups. Previous study showed that the level of CRP did not remarkably increased related to SLE2. Therefore, it need to consider the possibility of infection. Further follow-up is needed to explore the relationship between late-onset SLE and infection which is the principal reason of hospitalization and death19. Regarding antibodies, patients with JSLE exhibited increased levels of IgM, while patients with late-onset SLE showed an increase in IgA. We did not observe any differences in blood cell counts, Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR), complement levels, and liver enzymes among the three age groups.
ANA staining patterns are correlated to the nuclear antigens targeted. Previous study reported that homogeneous pattern was associated with anti-dsDNA antibody, and speckled pattern was related to anti-Sm/RNP antibody12,20, which were conformed in patients with ASLE and early-onset SLE respectively according to our results. Anti-R52 antibody was associated to higher prevalence of speckled pattern, which was consistent with early studies12,20, but the result of anti-R60 antibody in patients with early-onset ASLE was opposite. In an investigation from Sweden, anti-SSA antibody was related to homogeneous/speckled pattern (a mixed type) in patients with SLE21. It may explained the difference. Homogeneous pattern was associated to anti-P, anti-chromatin and anti- SSB antibody in patients with early-onset ASLE in this study, which were essentially comparable with previous investigation21, 22,23. Moreover, we had some noteworthy findings: the prevalence of homogeneous pattern was positive correlated with malar rash and renal involvement in patients with early-onset ASLE (speckled pattern was opposite). Anti-dsDNA antibody which was common among early-onset ASLE in this study was associated to homogeneous pattern and less often associated to speckled pattern. Kidney and skin involvement were intimately linked to anti-dsDNA antibody24. These may be the possible explanation. Speckled pattern was positive correlated with Raynaud's phenomenon in patients with late-onset SLE, which may be explained by the relationship between anti-Sm/RNP antibody and Raynaud's phenomenon25,26. These new findings need more confirmation by others, and we will collect more data and follow up.
It is the first Chinese JSLE, early-onset ASLE and late-onset SLE retrospective cohort study for ANA patterns, which enrolled a large number of newly diagnosed patients without treatment. All the data we collected were at early stage of the disease, so our research can assist in diagnosis and predict organ involvement in patients of different ages by detecting the relationship of ANA patterns with autoantibodies, initial symptoms and complications which had less studies on, to control disease progression at very early stages. Nevertheless, sample with JSLE were few, so we did not find the association of ANA patterns with symptoms. In addition, we only detect homogeneous and speckled patterns in this study because of less presence of other staining patterns in patients. We will collect more cases to perfect our research in the future.
In conclusion, we suggested that patients with late-onset SLE need to consider serious renal damage, ILD and infection. The physicians need to pay attention to ANA pattern for the correlation of homogeneous pattern with anti-dsDNA antibody in elderly patients, because of delayed diagnosis of them. Late-onset patients with speckled pattern are more likely to develop Raynaud's phenomenon, if patients have chest distress and oppressed, pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) should be noted27. Patients with early-onset ASLE are likely to have high disease activity, and they with homogeneous pattern need to be aware of renal disorder.