J. Nojima et al., RISK OF ARTERIAL THROMBOSIS IN PATIENTS WITH ANTICARDIOLIPIN ANTIBODIES AND LUPUS ANTICOAGULANT, British Journal of Haematology, 96(3), 1997, pp. 447-450
The relationship between arterial or venous thrombosis and the levels
of anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL) and/or existence of lupus anticoag
ulant (LA) was studied. The 141 patients with systemic lupus erythemat
osus (SLE) were divided into four groups: aCL single positive (25 case
s), LA single positive (11 cases), aCL and LA double positive (25 case
s), aCL and LA double negative (80 cases). The prevalence of thrombosi
s was higher in aCL and LA double positive patients (21/25 cases, 84.0
%, P < 0.01) than that in aCL single positive patients (4/25 cases, 16
.0%), LA single positive patients (1/11 cases, 9.1%) and double negati
ve patients (3/80 cases, 3.8%), Furthermore, in these double positive
patients, all patients (10/10 cases) with a high positive level of aCL
(> 10 units/ml) had arterial thrombosis, whereas only 2/15 patients (
13.3%) with a low positive level of aCL (3-10 units/ml) were affected,
Venous thrombosis was frequently found in the low positive group (9/1
5 cases, 60.0%). On the contrary, none of 105 LA negative patients had
arterial thrombosis and only seven (6.7%) had venous thrombosis. Thes
e findings indicate that a high aCL activity combined with a LA positi
ve result might be a risk factor for arterial thrombosis.