During the past 10 years , it has been shown that patients with
antibodies to phospholipids develop recurrent venous thrombosis ,
repeated fetal loss and thrombocytopenia.
The aim of this study is to determine the importance of serum
anticardiolipin antibodies (ACA) in patients with coronary heart disease
(CHD) and to see whether ACA could be, among others, a predisposing
factor for the coronary artery occlusion and whether it could serve as a
prognostic marker for CHD.
The studied population consisted of 30 CHD patients and 10 healthy
subjects as a control group. Coronary heart disease patients were divided
into 3 groups : Group 1 (10 patients suffering from stable angina) ; Group
11 (10 patients suffering from unstable angina) ; and Group 111 (10 patients
suffering from acute myocardial infarction). Immunoglobulin G
anticardiolipin antibodies (1gG ACA) and immunoglobulin M
anticardiolipin antibodies (IgM ACA) were detected by the enzymelinked
inununosorbant assay (ELISA).
High IgG ACA levels were found in patients with unstable angina
(50%) compared to the normal control group with a highly significant
difference. High IgG ACA levels were detected in patients with stable
angina (40%) and acute myocardial infarction (30%) when compared to
the control group. The difference was also significant. Ig MACA levels
showed no significant difference between the three groups of patients and
the control one.
As a result , the detection of IgG ACA in CHD patients may be an
alarm of a risk of impending thrombotic attack and high levels of IgG
ACA in post-myocardial infarction patients may be considered as a risk of
recurrence. |
