Antiphospholipid antibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus

Objectives: To assess the association between antiphospholipid antibodies and the frequency of thrombotic events, recurrent abortions and thrombocytopenia. Methods: One hundred and twenty patients were tested for the presence or absence of antiphospholipid antibodies, which were performed for various clinical indications. Of the 120 patients, 42 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus were selected for this study, 36 females and 6 males. A retrospective study was performed. Chi-square test and Fisher's Exact Test were used to check for the presence or absence of association between variables. Results: There is statistically significant association of thrombi and positive antiphospholipid antibodies. Then is no statistically significant association of recurrent spontaneous abortions or thrombocytopenia with positive antiphosopholipid antibodies, However, the power of the performed test for both the recurrent spontaneous abortions and thrombocytopenia were "0.075" which is very much below the desired power of ''0.80". Conclusion: There wets a definite association between thrombi and positive antiphospholipid antibodies in cases of systemic lupus erythematosus with a much higher proportion of thrombi among those who are positive for antiphosopholipid antibodies. The absence of significant association between recurrent spontaneous abortions or thrombocytopenia could be due to the selection criteria in addition for the sample being small for such conclusion.