A prospective study of antibodies to beta2-glycoprotein I and prothrombin, and risk of thrombosis

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is a clinical autoimmune disorder characterized by thrombosis/pregnancy morbidity associated with the persistence of lupus anticoagulant (LA) and/or anticardiolipin (aCL) antibodies. We assessed the contribution of antibodies to beta2-glycoprotein I (anti-beta2GPI) and prothrombin (anti-PT) to the thrombotic risk in a cohort of 194 consecutive patients with persistent LA and/or aCL. Median follow-up was 45 months. A total of 39 patients (20.1%) had one documented episode of thrombosis during follow-up. Eleven of these patients had no previous thrombosis before enrollment in the study and 28 had recurrences of thrombosis. There were 21 venous and 18 arterial thrombotic events and the overall incidence of thrombosis was 5.6% per patient-year. After multivariate analysis, the male sex (P = 0.025), a previous thrombosis (P < 0.01), the presence of anti-beta2GPI (P = 0.001), and the presence of anti-PT (P = 0.03) remained as independent risk factors for recurrent thrombosis. Only IgG anti-beta2GPI and anti-PT were associated with an increased risk of thrombosis (P < 0.01 and P = 0.005). Patients testing positive for anti-beta2GPI had a higher rate of thrombosis than did antiphospholipid patients without anti-beta2GPI (8.0% vs. 3.1% per patient-year). Similarly, a higher rate of thrombosis was found in patients with positive anti-PT compared with patients without anti-PT (8.6% vs. 3.5% per patient-year). Considering only the group of 142 LA positive patients, the highest incidence of thrombosis was found in LA patients positive for both anti-beta2GPI and anti-PT (8.4% per patient-year). In conclusion, the presence of IgG anti-beta2GPI and anti-PT in patients with LA and/or aCL and mainly in those with LA predicts a higher risk of thromboembolic events.