Importance of serum anticardiolipin antibody levels in coronary heart disease.

During the past 10 years it has been shown that some patients with antibodies to phospholipids develop recurrent venous and arterial thromboses, repeated fetal loss, and thrombocytopenia. The aim of this study is to determine the importance of levels of serum anticardiolipin antibodies (ACA) in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). The study population consisted of 76 CHD patients (Group 1) and 22 healthy subjects (Group 2). Group 1 comprised three subgroups: (1a) 32 patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI), (1b) 22 patients with chronic CHD and a history of MI, and (1c) 22 patients with CHD but without previous MI. Immunoglobulin G anticardiolipin antibodies (IgG ACA) and immunoglobulin M anticardiolipin antibodies (IgM ACA) were detected by ELISA. High IgG ACA levels were found in 36 patients (47%) in Group 1, but no high levels were found in the control group. IgM ACA levels showed no significant difference between the two groups. The ACA (IgG and IgM) levels showed no correlation with age, gender, risk factor profiles, platelet counts, coronary artery lesions, left ventricular function, and morbidity and mortality rates during the follow-up period of 22 months. As a result, measurement of ACA in CHD patients is unlikely to yield information that is diagnostically or prognostically important. The importance of serum anticardiolipin antibody levels in the natural history and prognosis of CHD is still undetermined and remains to be clarified.