[Anticardiolipin antibodies in leg ulcers].

OBJECTIVE

To verify the prevalence of IgG and IgM anticardiolipin antibodies in patients with leg ulcer (venous, arterial and diabetic) and if these patients can be identified by clinical means.

METHODS

A series of 151 patients with leg ulcer (81 venous, 50 diabetic and 20 arterial ulcers) and 150 controls were studied. In both groups it was searched the presence of IgG and IgM anticardiolipin by the ELISA method. In the leg ulcer group demographic data were obtained, data on the leg ulcer size and number as well as pain severity measured by an analogical visual scale. In statistic analysis, the adopted significance was of 5%.

RESULTS

It was found an anticardiolipin prevalence of 7.2% (n=12) in the leg ulcers group and of 1.3% (n=2) in the control group (p=0.01). Comparing the different ulcer types with control population, it was found that there was an increase in anticardiolipin antibodies in venous (p=0.02), and diabetic (p=0.01) but not in arterial ulcers (p=0.31). Leg ulcer patients with anticardiolipin did not differ from those without it in gender (p=0.98); ulcer size (p=0.6); pain severity (p=0.67), mean number of ulcers (p=0.38), mean disease duration time (p= 0.59) and previous history of venous thrombosis (p=0.69).

CONCLUSION

There is an increased prevalence of anticardiolipin antibodies in patients with venous leg ulcers and diabetic ulcers but not in those of arterial origin. Clinical characteristics of ulcers do not help in the identification of these patients.