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Multicenter Study
. 2009 Sep;68(9):1428-32.
doi: 10.1136/ard.2008.093179. Epub 2008 Sep 18.

Morbidity and mortality in the antiphospholipid syndrome during a 5-year period: a multicentre prospective study of 1000 patients

R Cervera  1 , M A Khamashta, Y Shoenfeld, M T Camps, S Jacobsen, E Kiss, M M Zeher, A Tincani, I Kontopoulou-Griva, M Galeazzi, F Bellisai, P L Meroni, R H W M Derksen, P G de Groot, E Gromnica-Ihle, M Baleva, M Mosca, S Bombardieri, F Houssiau, J-C Gris, I Quéré, E Hachulla, C Vasconcelos, B Roch, A Fernández-Nebro, J-C Piette, G Espinosa, S Bucciarelli, C N Pisoni, M L Bertolaccini, M-C Boffa, G R V Hughes; Euro-Phospholipid Project Group (European Forum on Antiphospholipid Antibodies)
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Morbidity and mortality in the antiphospholipid syndrome during a 5-year period: a multicentre prospective study of 1000 patients

R Cervera et al. Ann Rheum Dis. 2009 Sep.

Abstract

Objectives: To identify the main causes of morbidity and mortality in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) during a 5-year period and to determine clinical and immunological parameters with prognostic significance.

Methods: The clinical and immunological features of a cohort of 1000 patients with APS from 13 European countries who had been followed up from 1999 to 2004 were analysed.

Results: 200 (20%) patients developed APS-related manifestations during the 5-year study period. Recurrent thrombotic events appeared in 166 (16.6%) patients and the most common were strokes (2.4% of the total cohort), transient ischaemic attacks (2.3%), deep vein thromboses (2.1%) and pulmonary embolism (2.1%). When the thrombotic events occurred, 90 patients were receiving oral anticoagulants and 49 were using aspirin. 31/420 (7.4%) patients receiving oral anticoagulants presented with haemorrhage. 3/121 (2.5%) women with only obstetric APS manifestations at the start of the study developed a new thrombotic event. A total of 77 women (9.4% of the female patients) had one or more pregnancies and 63 (81.8% of pregnant patients) had one or more live births. The most common fetal complications were early pregnancy loss (17.1% of pregnancies) and premature birth (35% of live births). 53 (5.3% of the total cohort) patients died. The most common causes of death were bacterial infection (21% of deaths), myocardial infarction (19%) and stroke (13%). No clinical or immunological predictor of thrombotic events, pregnancy morbidity or mortality was detected.

Conclusion: Patients with APS still develop significant morbidity and mortality despite current treatment (oral anticoagulants or antiaggregants, or both).

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