Prevalence of antibodies against oxidised LDL in a cohort of 163 patients with positive anti-phospholipid antibodies and recent thrombosis.

We evaluated the prevalence of anti-beta2-glycoprotein I (a-beta2-GPI), anti-phosphatidylserine/prothrombin (a-PP), anti-prothrombin (a-PT), and anti-oxidised low-density lipoprotein (a-oxLDL) antibodies in a cohort of patients with a recent thrombotic event. Among consecutive sera sent to an autoimmune laboratory for routine testing for anti-cardiolipin antibodies (aCL) 473 were found positive for IgG and/or IgM aCL. The referring physicians were requested for clinical information about thrombo-embolic events occurring within 6 months prior to testing. One hundred and sixty-three individuals of which 82 had suffered from cerebro-vascular infarction and 49 from deep venous thromboses or pulmonary emboli were included in the study. Ninety-four sera were positive for IgG aCL and 69 were negative. There was a strong correlation between the presence of IgG aCL and the three other phospholipid-related antibodies: a-beta2-GPI, a-PP, and a-PT. However, IgG a-oxLDL antibodies were almost equally distributed among sera positive and negative for IgG aCL. The presence of antibodies of all subgroups was most pronounced among patients with venous thrombo-embolic disease. In this cohort antibodies to beta2-GPI, PP, PT seem to coexist with aCL. However, a-oxLDL antibodies appear to define a subset of patients, who were older, had more arterial vascular disease, and with no apparent association to the presence of IgG aCL.