Abstract:

Objective To analyze the determination results of antinuclear antibodies（ANA）in infertile female patients,and to investigate the role of ANA determination in the diagnosis of infertiliy.Methods A total of 2 939 infertile patients（infertile group） were enrolled and determined for ANA by indirect immunofluorescence,and their ANA profiles were determined by immunoblotting. The results were compared with those of healthy women（control group） at reproductive age who had no history of adverse pregnancy during the same period. The relationship between autoantibodies and infertility was analyzed.Results In infertile group,316 cases of ANA were determined,and the positive rate was 10.75%. There were 6 cases of ANA in control group,and the positive rate was 1.95%. The median of ANA in infertile group was 1∶100,which was lower than the median of ANA positive titers for autoimmune diseases. The common ANA karyotypes in infertile group were granular（64.24%）and nucleoli（19.31%）. The common ANA karyotypes in control group were granular（83.33%） and homogenized（16.67%）. For ANA profile in infertile group,all kinds of antibodies were determined,anti-Sjögren syndrome A（SS-A）antibody was the most（23.03%）,and ANA profile was also determined in ANA negative patients. Using ANA combined with ANA profile,the positive rate in infertile group was 20.42%,and that in control group was 6.49%（P>0.05）.Conclusions ANA is one of the causes of infertility. The combined determination of ANA and ANA profile is better than single determinations in the diagnosis of infertility.

Key words: Infertility, Antinuclear antibody, Autoantibody