Anticardiolipin antibodies in serum and cerebrospinal fluid from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Anticardiolipin antibodies were studied in serum and cerebrospinal fluid from 32 consecutive patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, admitted for the assessment of neuropsychiatric disease. Ten of the 16 patients with active neuropsychiatric complaints showed positive anticardiolipin antibodies in cerebrospinal fluid, including eight with the simultaneous presence of antibodies in their sera. By contrast, only 2 of the 16 patients with headaches, lacking further data of neurological disease, revealed anticardiolipin antibodies in their cerebrospinal fluid. The assessment of Q-albumin index showed abnormal values in a subset of patients with active neuropsychiatric changes who showed positive cerebrospinal anticardiolipin antibodies, suggesting that an impairment of the blood brain barrier function may lead to a leakage of intrathecal antiphospholipid antibodies from systemic circulation. Additionally, few patients revealed normal Q-albumin values with high IgG-cerebrospinal fluid index suggesting increased intrathecal synthesis of autoantibodies. The study of anticardiolipin antibodies in cerebrospinal fluid was useful to detect active neuropsychiatric disease in systemic lupus erythematosus.