AUTHOR=Sciascia Savino , Radin Massimo , Cecchi Irene , Rubini Elena , Foddai Silvia Grazietta , Barinotti Alice , Vaccarino Antonella , Rossi Daniela , Roccatello Dario 

TITLE=Incidence of a First Thrombo-Embolic Event in Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Anti-phosphatidylserine/prothrombin Antibodies: A Prospective Study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.621590

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2021.621590

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=Objective: We aimed to prospectively investigate the incidence of first thromboembolic events (TEs) in a cohort of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients positive for anti-phosphatidylserine/prothrombin (aPS/PT) antibodies and tested negative for anticardiolipin (aCL) and anti-β2–glycoprotein I (aβ2GPI) antibodies [regardless of their Lupus Anticoagulant (LA) status]. 
Methods: Inclusion criteria includes: a)SLE with no previous TEs; b)no concomitant anti-thrombotic therapy; c)isolated confirmed positive test for aPS/PT.
Results: From the total of 52 SLE patients (42, 80.8% women), 18 patients (34.6%) were found to be positive for aPS/PT (IgG/IgM). During a mean follow-up (3.9 ±1.1 years), 3 TEs occurred (1.3%/year). The overall cumulative incidence of TEs was 5.8% after 2 years, and up to 16.7% when focusing on aPS/PT positive patients. All the TEs events (2 cerebrovascular events and 1 thrombotic kidney microangiopathy) occurred in the aPS/PT positive group. When focusing on IgG aPS/PT we found that patients tested positive were at a significant higher risk for TEs (crude HR 19.6, 95%; CI 1.1 to 357.6; p<0.05) when compared to patients with negative aPS/PT.
Conclusion: In our study we observed a rate of TEs of 1.3%/year, only in aPS/PT positive patients. Our prospective data suggest that aPS/PT might confer an increased risk for the development of TEs in SLE patients.