You don't have any antinuclear antibodies. Those are found with most of the autoimmune diseases. They tested you for those things to see if an autoimmune condition was causing your neuropathy or condition (I don't know what your condition is). If it is a ratio of 1:40 or less, it is considered negative....it titrates up to 1:1280 or if they put a > sign in front, it means they still saw immunoflorescence at a dilution of greater than 1,280 and it could be much higher, but most people don't get up to 1280, so they don't bother....in other words, >1:1280 means you have as high of an ANA as they expect to ever see.

It is non-specific which means, it says only, 'you have an autoimmune disease" and gives no info as to which one.

So they test for other ones. There are the usual rheumatic ones and then there are neuro ones, and if I had the umph to irritate my neuro I would have him run those....but I have no umph. My Anti-RNP/SM was within normal limits but closer to the higher limit than low. That one is for MCTD.

Lyme is obviously negative. As some one who had a perfect case of Lyme and has a negative titer now....man, show me some one with a positive case that has not had it done at Igenex...Yes, mine is + from Igenex. So ruling out Lyme with a blood test, only gives the medical community some kind of comfort. It may mean nothing.

Lupus is usually ruled out on the basis of your ANA titre....how high it comes in. Keep in mind they titer it by about 40. So 1:40 is negative, 1:80, 1:120, 1:160 all the way up to >1:1280....are possible results. They look at that and then your complements, C3, C4, C50 and make a decision on if you look like it could be Lupus. Also, Lupus has other symptoms such as Malar Rash. I have a low C4, depending on which lab is used....so I look kind of Lupusy now, but because I had a bad looking minor salivary gland, and dry eyes, they somehow decided it was Sjogrens...but seronegative, back when this started.

Now they don't know what to call it. The sicker I get, the less they seem to know about it....HMMM. Eventually a smoking gun will show up. Actually, I should not say they know less, they know it is autoimmune....at one point it was 'idiopathic', then it was 'hereditary'.

Finding the cause of a small fiber neuropathy can take years, even a decade.

Also ANA is not stagnant. It can move from low to high.

I hope that helps. Answers don't usually come real quick for many of us. You will learn a lot about a lot!!