Turkish Journal of
GERIATRICS

Akdeniz Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Fiziksel Tıp ve Rehabilitasyon Anabilim Dalı, ANTALYA
Akdeniz Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Mikrobiyoloji Anabilim Dalı, ANTALYA
Akdeniz Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Merkez Mikrobiyoloji Laboratuarı - ANTALYA The prevalence of some autoantibodies has been reported to be elevated in the elderly patients due to immunosenescence. A prospective study was planned to determine the prevalence of certain autoantibodies among healthy Turkish elderly. A total of 21 cases were included in the study. Eleven of these were older than 60 years of age with a mean age of 67.63±8.32 years and the age of the remaining 10 cases were below 30 years with a mean of 25.1±4.4 years.Anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA), anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA), rheumatoid factor :(RF), and antibodies to extractable nuclear antigens (ENA) were measured in the serum. In the elderly the prevalence of ANA, ANCA, RF and ENA autoantibodies were found to be 9.09%, 0%, 0%, and 9.09%, respectively whereas they were determined to be as 10%, 0%, 10%, and 20% in the young controls. There was no statistically significant difference between freguency of autoantibodies in the elderly and the young controls. In conclusion, we suggest that autoantibodies do not nonspesifically elevate in our elderly population, and they should be taken into consideration while assessing the health of the old Turkish people. However, further studies with larger number of cases will be more reliable. Keywords : Elderly, autoantibodies, ANA, ANCA, RF, ENA