Systemic and cerebral vasculitis coexisting with disseminated coagulopathy in systemic lupus erythematosus associated with antiphospholipid syndrome.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) are closely related, but each has it own characteristic vasculopathy: vasculitis in SLE and thrombosis in APS, and either may be a serious or life threatening complication. When a patient has SLE associated with APS, systemic and cerebral vasculitis may coexist with disseminated coagulopathy. We report this complication in a 60-year-old woman who died from stroke and myocardial infarction, an occurrence seldom documented in the literature.