Auto Antibodies and Rheumatology

The big thing to remember with all of these auto antibodies is that they often overlap between different autoimmune diseases. Even the classic anti histone antibody that we sit there and study for hours in medical school can actually be seen in just plain old regular lupus. It's good idea to send off a CBC, creatinine, UA to get a sense of how urgently the patient needs to be seen by room or get more immediate care. And if that diagnosis is lupus, you can recheck that double stranded DNA, compliments and lymphocyte levels because these often correlate with disease activity.