What Are Anticardiolipin Antibodies?

Anti cardiolipin antibody (ACA) is an autoantibody using cardiolipin negatively charged on platelets and endothelial cell membranes as the target antigen. It is a type of antiphospholipid antibody and anti-phospholipid antibody syndrome (anti- phospholipid syndrome (APS). Common in systemic lupus erythematosus and other autoimmune diseases. Many factors are closely related to the production of ACA. The common causes are: autoimmune diseases: such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), scleroderma, etc .; viral infections such as adenovirus, Rubella virus, chickenpox virus, mumps virus and other infections; other diseases: such as mycoplasma system diseases; oral certain drugs: such as chlorpromazine, phenothiazine, etc .; a few normal people without obvious organic diseases, Especially the elderly. The immunological classification of ACA includes IgG, IgA and IgM3. Among them, IgG ACA is the most clinically significant. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay is usually used.

Basic Information

Chinese name: Anticardiolipin antibody
Foreign name: anti cardiolipin antibody, ACA

Attributes: Autoantibodies
Laboratory indicators: IgG-APL IgM-APL LA positive
Including: Lupus Anticoagulant Lupus Anticoagulant

Clinical significance of anticardiolipin antibodies

Anticardiolipin antibodies can be used to assist in the diagnosis of habitual abortion, thrombosis, thrombocytopenia, and lupus encephalopathy.

1. The positive detection rate of ACA antibody in SLE patients is very high. ACA antibody-positive SLE patients are significantly more likely to develop vasculitis, hemolytic anemia, and heart and central nervous system damage than ACA antibody-negative women. ACA antibody-positive SLE women have increased platelet agglutination, increased thromboxane, and are more prone to thrombosis. Abortion is prone to occur during pregnancy.

The detection of ACA antibodies in serum and cerebrospinal fluid is helpful for the clinical diagnosis of patients with neuropsychiatric lupus.

3. The positive rate of ACA antibody in RA patients can reach 33% ~ 49%, and the juvenile RA patients can reach 42% ~ 59%.

4. Repeated spontaneous abortions occurred more frequently in ACA antibody positive patients than in ACA antibody negative patients.