ACR Journals On Air Significance of a Positive ANA in Patients Without Autoimmune Diseases
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Aug 18, 2026 Vivian Kawai, a University of Alabama rheumatologist and data-driven researcher, joins medical student and clinical informatics researcher Matthew Chung. They explore what high-titer ANA results may signal without autoimmune disease, how electronic health records and PheWAS uncovered striking liver-disease associations, and the study’s limitations. They also discuss mentorship, finding research opportunities, and Matthew’s path toward medicine.
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Family History Inspired An Undergraduate Researcher
- Matthew Chung entered the project as an undergraduate without experience handling electronic health-record data.
- His family history of autoimmune disease sparked curiosity, while persistence and trial-and-error enabled him to lead the study.
A Two-Decade ANA Dataset Enabled High-Titer Analysis
- Researchers analyzed roughly 88,500 adults tested at Vanderbilt from 2000 through September 2022.
- They used homogeneous in-house HEp-2 indirect immunofluorescence testing and assigned each patient to an exclusive earliest-result group.
PheWAS Turns Billing Codes Into Testable Phenotypes
- PheWAS bundles related ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes into phenotype groups, enabling thousands of case-control comparisons.
- Chart review validated top associations because billing codes can misclassify diseases without supporting clinical notes.