THE ANTICARDIOLIPIN ANTIBODY IN ELDERLY STROKE PATIENTS - ITS EFFECTSON STROKE TYPES, RECURRENCE, AND THE COAGULATION-FIBRINOLYSIS SYSTEM

Anticardiolipin antibody (aCL) is known as a risk marker for stroke, p articularly in subjects younger than 50 years of age. We studied the e ffects of aCL on stroke types, recurrences, and the coagulation-fibrin olysis system in 257 elderly patients (63.2 +/- 11.4 years). Follow-up was performed for 3.1 years on 184 patients, for whom the rate of sym ptomatic and asymptomatic reinfarcts on CT was studied. aCL was positi ve in 30 (12%) of the patients. The incidence of atherosclerotic chang es in the cerebral arteries was not significantly different between aC L-positive and aCL-negative patients. The aCL-positive patients had a greater rate of individuals not having any of the known risk factors ( p<0.05), a greater incidence of cortical infarctions (p<0.05), more fr equent symptomatic recurrences (p<0.05). They had significantly greate r changes in molecular markers for the coagulation-fibrinolysis system in the acute phase (p<0.05), but not in the chronic phase.