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- Nilsson, Bengt-Olof, 1954-, et al.
(author)
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Antinuclear antibodies in the oldest-old women and men
- 2006
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In: Journal of Autoimmun. - : Elsevier. ; 27:4, s. 281-288
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) in very old individuals (>/=86years of age) with healthy younger (18-68years) blood donors (n=200) regarding gender, health status, ratio of circulating CD4/CD8 cells and cytomegalovirus (CMV) serology. Frozen plasma was used for ANA detection in two study groups, i.e. 'OCTO' (97 persons aged 86-92years, 65% women) and 'NONA' (136 persons aged 86-95years, 70% women). OCTO participants were recruited on the basis that they were healthy or moderately healthy according to a selection protocol. No exclusion criteria regarding health status were applied in the NONA sample. The prevalence of ANA was significantly higher in the oldest-old samples compared to blood donors. There was no association between health status and the presence of ANA in the oldest-old. The difference across age was most pro-nounced in men, with low levels at younger age, whereas the prevalence among the oldest-old men reached similar levels as in women. There were no associations between the presence of ANA and CD4/CD8 ratio or with CMV status in the oldest-old. Our findings confirm an in-creased prevalence of ANA in the oldest-old, and emphasize the importance of taking gender and age into consideration when evaluating ANA.
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