Healthgirl, I understand your worry about your daughter.

There are two parts to an anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) test.

The first is the titre - the larger this number, the more anti-nuclear antibodies are present in the blood. Your daughter's titre (1:160) is slightly high. The second is the staining pattern of anti-nuclear antibodies in cell nuclei - that is what "speckled" means.

An abnormal ANA test (and also an anti-histone antibody test) suggests but is not necessarily diagnostic of an autoimmune disease. False positives (abnormal test results with no autoimmune disease) are quite common.

It might be an idea if you arranged for your daughter to see a specialist rheumatologist. A rheumatologist will be able to do a more detailed assessment of her.

With care and concern.