Publications of Faculty of Medicine:THE PREVALENCE OF ANTIPHOSPHOLIPID ANTIBODY IN WOMEN WITH RECURRENT PREGNANCY LOSSES AND IN INFERTILE WOMEN WITH MULTIPLE IMPLANTATION FAILURES AFTER IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION: Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the prevalence of anticardiolipin (aCL), antiphosphatidylserine (aPS) and anti-p2-glycoprotein I (42-GP1) antibodies in women with repeated spontaneous abortion (RSA) and repeated in-vitro fertilizationembryo transfer failure (IVF-ET-F). The study included 40 women with three or more RSA of unknown etiology with the same partner (RSA group), 40 women with IVFET failures after two or more IVF cycles (IVF-ET-F group) and 10 normal multiparous healthy non-pregnant women with documented uncomplicated pregnancies (Control group). After full history taking and complete general and obstetric examination all patients gave blood samples for determination of aPS, aCL and a132-GP1 IgG and IgM antibodies by ELISA. Anticardiolipin antibodies were detected in 12 patients with RSA (30%) and 11 patients (27.5%) with IVF failure, while aPS antibodies were detected in 6(15%) and 14 (35%) patients in both groups respectively. There was a significant increase in the number of patients with positive aCL and aPS antibodies in both groups, compared to control group. Intergroup comparison showed increased number of IVF failure patients having antibodies that was non-significant in aCL but was significant in aPS. Ant1cardiolipin IgG antibodies were detected in 12.5% and IgM in 15% in patients with RSA, whereas in IVF-ET-F group, IgG antibodies were detected in 17.5%, IgM antibodies in 7.5%. In patients with RSA IgG-aPS antibodies were detected in 5%.; IgM antibodies in 10%, while in patients with [VP failure, IgM-aPS antibodies were detected in 10% and IgG antibodies in 20% of patients with an increased number of IgG positive patients in IVF-ET-F group compared to those with RSA, and the difference was significant in case of IgG-aPS. Anti[32-glycoprtitein I antibodies pould not be detected in controls, moreover, no patient had both IgG and IgM in either group, only 4 patients in each group had IgG antibodies and only one patient in IVF-ET-F group had IgM antibodies. It could be concluded that repeated pregnancy loss or IVF embryo transfer failure may be an entity of antiphospholipid syndrome associated with high frequency of anticardiolipin and antiphosphatidylserine antibodies and such patients must be investigated for the presence of these antibodies before reproduction trials.