Clinical characteristics of 174 Chinese patients with antiphospholipid syndrome and comparison with European patients / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) in a cohort of Chinese patients. Methods From January 1996 to October 2009, 174 patients with defined APS were retrospectively studied,χ2 test was selected. Results The cohort consisted of 151(86.8%) female and 23 (13.2%) male. Mean age at study was (42±13) years (range 14-75 years). Thirty-one (17.8%) patients had primary APS, 143 (82.2% ) patients had APS associated with other diseases, including 138 cases of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). One hundred and forty-one (81.0%) had thrombosis episodes, among which the most common presenting manifestations were stroke (27.6%), deep venous thrombosis (27.6%) and pulmonary embolism (6.3% ). Stroke was more prevalent in Chinese than European patients. Forty-five patients (31.9%) had thrombotic recurrences and 62 patients (44.0%) had more than two sites of thrombosis. Patients with primary APS had higher rates of rethrombosis than those with secondary APS (P<0.05). Fetal morbidity rate of 126 married women in our study was 50.0%. Seven of APS patients with APS nephropathy were characterized by thrombotic microangiopathy. The presence of anticardiolipin antibodies was detected in 112 patients (64.4% ), anti-beta-2 glycoprotein Ⅰ antibodies in 103 patients (59.1%) and lupus anticoagulant in 50 patients (28.7%). Conclusion APS is characterized by recurrent thrombosis, pregnancy morbidity and positive antiphospholipid antibodies tests. Stroke, deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism are the most common manifestations both in Chinese and European patients. Rethrombosis is more prominent in primary APS. Thrombotic microangiopathy is one of the most common histological changes of APS nephropathy. Multiple tests for aPL are proposed.