Lupus Anticoagulants and Antibodies to Phospholipids

Abstract

ABSTRACT To the Editor. —Triplett and associates1 have made important observations about the relationship of lupus anticoagulants, phospholipid antibodies, and clinical disorders.However, they stated that 8% of their patients had a history of spontaneous abortion. Although eight of the 100 patients had a history of recurrent abortions, there were only 50 women in the study. It would be more appropriate to state that eight (16%) of 50 women had a history of recurrent abortion. The 95% confidence intervals for this observation are 7.17% to 29.11%. Recurrent spontaneous abortion, the loss of three or more pregnancies before 20 weeks' gestation, occurs in an estimated 0.4% to 0.8% of women. Spontaneous abortion is clinically recognized in 15% to 20% of pregnancies.2 The association of phospholipid antibodies and recurrent spontaneous abortion should be emphasized. The causative role, if any exists, remains to be elucidated.