Prevalence of autoantibodies in Saudi population

The demonstration of autoantibodies in sera from patients is diagnostic of autoimmune diseases. A prerequisite to such diagnostic undertaking and interpretation, the availability of serologic data pertaining to normal controls in a given population, is an absolute must. To achieve this, we determined the prevalence of antinuclear antibodies in an apparently healthy Saudi population. Of the total of 664 serum samples tested, 4.2% were found to be positive. Throughout life, the prevalence of autoantibodies was found to be higher in females than in age matched males, and increased with age in both sexes.