The prevalence of anticardiolipin antibody in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and its association with clinical manifestations.

The central immunological disturbance in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is autoantibody production. Some of these antibodies affecting components of the cell nucleus are the major characteristics of SLE. The present study was aimed to assess importance of anticardiolipin (ACL) antibody and its association with clinical state in SLE patients. A cross sectional study was performed on 100 patients with SLE referred to rheumatology outpatient clinic in Ekbatan hospital in Hamadan (Iran) between 2007 and 2008. Serum samples were extracted and screened for IgG and IgM using an ACL enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Up to 36% of patients were positive for ACL antibody that was more frequent in women than men (39.8% versus 8.3%). No association was revealed between ACL antibody and age. Clinical manifestations of antiphospholipid antibody syndrome were observed in 23.0% of patients that was more prevalent in ACL positive group compared with ACL negative group (41.7% versus 125%). The prevalence of other manifestations including pregnancy-related disorders (recurrent abortion), central nervous system defects, and deep vein thrombosis was 33.3%, 25.0%, and 30.6% in ACL positive group and was 9.4%, 7.8%, and 7.8% in ACL negative group that all were more frequent in the former group. The prevalence of thrombocytopenia was also higher in ACL positive group than another group (22.2% versus 15.6%). Among ACL positive patients with clinical manifestations of antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, 86.6% had medium to high titer of ACL. Our study emphasized value of (ACL) antibody to assess clinical status in SLE patients.