T. Matsumoto et al., RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LUPUS ANTICOAGULANT (LAC) AND PREGNANCY-INDUCED HYPERTENSION, Reproduction, fertility and development, 7(6), 1996, pp. 1569-1571
Lupus anticoagulant (LAC), a serum antiphospholipid autoantibody, is b
elieved to be one of the causes of infertility or fetal loss. The purp
ose of the present study was to evaluate the role of LAC in the pathog
enesis of hypertension during pregnancy. In this study, 20 pregnant wo
men with hypertension were classified into two groups: 14 patients who
did not have hypertension before the pregnancy but developed it durin
g the pregnancy (pregnancy-induced hypertension; Group A) and 6 patien
ts who had hypertensive or renal disease before the pregnancy, and dev
eloped further hypertension during the pregnancy (pregnancy-aggravated
hypertension; Group B). A LAC coagulation assay was performed, and th
e presence of LAC in each group was compared. All 14 patients in group
A were LAG-negative. In contrast, 3 of the 6 patients in group B were
LAC-positive, and had clinical autoimmune diseases. The incidence of
pregnancy-induced hypertension was also examined in 15 pregnancies fro
m 9 LAC-positive women who had a history of repeated fetal loss but no
systemic autoimmune disease (Group C). None of these 15 pregnancies h
ad hypertensive complications, even when they reached term. In the pla
centas of LAC-positive women, no characteristic changes other than fib
rinoid degeneration and microscopic infarction were observed upon hist
ological examination. These results suggest that LAC does not relate w
ith the onset of hypertension during pregnancy.