Prevalence and clinical usefulness of antiphospholipid and anticofactor antibodies in different Spanish preeclampsia subsets.

OBJECTIVE

To study the prevalence and clinical usefulness of antiphospholipid antibodies in different preeclampsia subsets.

DESIGN

Observational cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Tertiary teaching hospital.

PATIENTS

Ninety-nine women with preeclampsia versus 83 healthy pregnant women as controls.

INTERVENTIONS

We analysed anticardiolipin IgG/IgM, anti-ß(2)glycoprotein IgG/IgM, antiphosphatidylserine IgG/IgM, antiAnnexin-A5 IgG/IgM, and lupus anticoagulant.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

Comparison of antiphospholipid antibody positivity between groups.

RESULTS

Antiphospholipid antibody prevalence was 14.14% in the study group vs. 7.23% in controls. Excluding antiAnnexin-A5-positive women, overall antiphospholipid prevalence was 13.19% vs. 3.61% (p = 0.034). Only IgM-anticardiolipin positivity showed significant differences between preeclampsia group and controls (8.1% vs. 1.20%, p = 0.041). Comparing a severe preeclampsia subset vs. controls, we obtained these significant results: for two or more positive antiphospholipid tests: 9.09% vs. 1.20 (p = 0.037); IgM-anticardiolipin 10.91% vs. 1.20% (p = 0.016); IgG/IgM-anti-ß(2)glycoprotein-I 10.91% vs. 1.90% (p = 0.016), IgM-anti-ß(2)glycoprotein-I 9.09% vs.1.20 (p = 0.037). When comparing early-onset preeclampsia vs. controls we found IgM-anticardiolipin 11.11% vs. 1.20% (p = 0.029).

CONCLUSIONS

Prevalence of antiphospholipid antibodies in preeclampsia patients is twice that in healthy pregnant women. Multipositive aPL test, IgM-anticardiolipin and IgM-anti-ß(2)glycoprotein-I isotypes showed an association with severe and early-onset preeclampsia. Larger studies are needed to establish the usefulness of antiphospholipid tests as risk markers for severe and early onset preeclampsia.