1987 Volume 10 Issue 1 Pages 78-84
Seventy Japanese patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were studied to define clinical and laboratory characteristics of lupus anticoagulant (LA). To detect LA activity, a mixing test of APTT was performed according to the method of Colaco et al., using the 1:5 diluted phospholipid reagent. As a result, LA was found in the plasma of 11 of 70 patients (16%) with SLE. The incidence of spontaneous abortion in LA-positive and LA-negative women were 7 of 18 pregnancies (39%) and 7 of 73 pregnancies (10%), respectively. The difference was highly significant (p<0.01). Cerebral infarction was observed in 2 patients of LA-positive SLE (18%) and was significantly associated with LA (p<0.05). There was no significant difference between LA-positive and LA-negative patients in frequencies of each manifestation of the 1982 ARA revised criteria for the classification of SLE. However, we found a tendency of lower incidence of serositis in LA-positive patients. The number of items of the revised criteria that LA-positive patients manifested was lower (p<0.05). LA was significantly associated with biological false positive seroreaction for syphilis (p<0.01). Platelet counts and anti-DNA antibody levels were significantly lower in LA positive-patients (p<0.05). We found a new evidence that platelet associated IgG levels were elevated significantly in LA-positive patients (p<0.05). It seems that LA-positive group includes atypical or mild SLE patients according to the fact that LA-positive patients have significantly low levels of anti-DNA antibodies, rare serositis and decreased number of manifestations of the revised criteria, compared with LA-negative patients.
