ANTI-PHOSPHOLIPID-ANTIBODIES IN PATIENTS WITH RELAPSING POLYCHONDRITIS

Relapsing polychondritis (RP) is an extremly rare multisystemic diseas e thought to be of autoimmune origin. in order to assess if RP is asso ciated with anti-phospholipid antibodies (aPL), clinical data and sera of 21 patients with RP were collected in a multicentre study. Concent ration of anti-cardiolipin antibodies (aCL) (IgG-, IgM- and IgA-isotyp es), anti-phosphatidylserine-antibodies (aPS) (IgG- and IgM-isotypes) and anti-beta-2-glycoprotein I-antibodies (a beta 2 GPI) were measured by ELISA. In eight patients aCL were found to be elevated. One patien t had elevated aPS. No patient had elevated a beta 2 GPI. No patient h ad clinical signs and symptoms of a aPL syndrome. Interestingly, the t wo RP patients with the highest aPL had concomitant systemic lupus ery thematosus (SLE). Therefore the presence of elevated aPL in RP is prob ably more closely related to an associated SLE than to RP itself. Ther e is no convincing evidence that aPL are associated with RP.