Research Communications of the 24th ECVIM-CA Congress

The cost of examinations reported in this study were covered by Hill's Pet Nutrition Belgium. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, SLE, is a chronic autoimmune disorder with varying clinical manifestations and diagnosis is based on both clinical signs and laboratory findings. Other systemic rheumatic diseases, referred to as SLE-related diseases or immune-mediated rheumatic disease (IMRD), are also described. The most common clinical signs in dogs are stiffness and pain from varying joints. One hallmark of SLE and SLE-related diseases in both dogs and humans is high titres of circulating antinuclear antibodies (ANA), which can be demonstrated by the indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) ANA test. Earlier studies have shown that canine IIF ANA positive samples may be divided into two main subgroups: homogenous (ANA H ) and speckled (ANA S ) IIF ANA fluorescence pattern. In humans, further determination of the specificity of ANA positive sera is frequently employed to characterize the ANA reactivity. Some of these ANA specificities have been demonstrated in man to strongly associate with different systemic autoimmune diseases and also with different IIF ANA staining patterns. Presence and character of antinuclear antibodies in canine SLE-related diseases are not well described.