The Association Of Anticardiolipin Antibodies And Hepatitis C Virus Infection In Relation To Antiphospholipid Syndrome Among Egyptians

Abstract

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is a disorder of recurrent thrombosis and/or pregnancy losses with positive anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL) or lupus anticoagulants tests. A high prevalence of aCL IgG was found in patients with HCV. The aim of this work was detection of the incidence of aCL in patients with HCV and whether any aetiopathogenesis exists between HCV and APS. 100 patients were studied by thorough history taking, clinical examination, routine laboratory investigations, HCV-RNA PCR and aCL antibodies. Our study showed that a significant proportion of chronic HCV patients have detectable aCL antibodies of low titre. This finding was neither associated with APS development nor with any clinical manifestations.