Abstract
Dr. Korkmaz raises the following issues: (1) the fluctuation of the aCL antibody titers, either spontaneous or modified by prednisone treatment, might be responsible for the upregulation of aPL antibodies after CYC treatment and not CYC itself; (2) his personal experience from 4 patients with SLE treated either with CYC orAZA alone or with prednisone is opposite to our own1; (3) the diagnosis of some patients with APS may not be accurate; and (4) renal biopsy findings of a patient with APS nephropathy are missing. Fluctuation of aCL antibody titers was observed in both treatment groups. However, high antibody titers (absorbance higher than the 99th percentile of 100 normal individuals in ELISA) obtained on 2 occasions 12 weeks apart were commonly detected in the CYC-treated group and constituted the criterion for seroconversion. Patients with high aCL titers tended to be permanently positive for aCL. The patients from both groups were evaluated for aCL antibodies with the same frequency over time. The … Address reprint requests to Dr. Vlachoyiannopoulos; E-mail: pvlah{at}med.uoa.gr
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