Coagulation and fibrinolysis study in systemic lupus erythematosus: haematological, urinary and tissue parameters.

Haematochemical, urinary and tissue parameters were examined in the elaboration of the coagulation and fibrinolysis profile in 33 cases of systemic lupus erythematosus in different stages of the disease. Coagulation abnormalities varied from hypo- to hyper-coagulability, these being often associated in the same patient, either simultaneously or at different stages of the disease. Activation of coagulation, closely related to the immunological activity of the disease, was present in 80% cases in the acute stage, and 36% of those in the remission stage. The lupus-like anticoagulant was not much involved, and platelets were the prime figures in the haemostatic abnormalities of lupus, those being the preferred target of direct antibody activities, or possibly of immune complexes as well. Activation of the coagulatory cascade is not uncommonly accompanied by a thrombophilic tendency coupled with signs of consumption, this being the expression of a continuously stimulated haemostatic balance.