Prevalence and significance of anticardiolipin antibodies in Crohn's disease.

Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel syndrome in which thrombotic complications occur in the active phase. Phospholipid-binding antibodies such as anticardiolipin antibodies and lupus anticoagulants have been shown to be associated with thrombosis. Their presence has been assessed in a group of 50 patients with Crohn's disease among whom 44 had active disease. The overall prevalence of anticardiolipin antibodies was about 22%, while none of these patients had lupus anticoagulant. Anticardiolipin antibodies have been observed in both active and quiescent CD and their presence does not seem to be related to the site of CD lesions. The presence of phospholipid-binding antibodies could be a sign of vascular alterations that are potentially thrombogenic per se, and their predictive value with respect to the specific inflammatory syndrome of Crohn's disease is discussed.