Antiphospholipid syndrome with subsequent chronic discoid lupus erythematosus: a case report

Antiphospholipid syndrome is an immune-mediated acquired disorder characterized by vein and/or artery thromboses and obstetrical complications associated with the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies in the blood. aPL include anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL), anti beta 2glycoproteinI (anti beta 2GPI), and lupus anticoagulant (LAC). A primitive idiopathic form and a secondary form of APS are recognized. The latter, observed mostly in patients affected by systemic lupus erythmatosus (SLE), has been described in numerous other autoimmune diseases. The association between CDLE and APS in not frequent. Indeed, although the literature contains several reports of CDLE patients positive for aPL, only two of these present sufficient clinical and laboratory characteristics for a diagnosis of APS. We present a case of APS and CDLE present contemporaneously in the patient. In our case, CDLE arose after the diagnosis of APS. Therefore, ours constitutes the first case of CDLE in an APS-diagnosed patient.