Exploring the association between preeclampsia and antiphospholipid antibodies. A prospective study

Abstract

Objectives

(I) to study the association between antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) and severe preeclampsia (PE) and (II) To assess the correlation between aPL and severe PE before and after 34 weeks of gestation.

Study Design

This prospective and interventional study included one hundred forty pregnant women separated in two groups based on their diagnostic status of PE.

Control Group

Forty normal pregnant women beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy. Tested for aPL: during they obstetric control and followed until birth. We only included volunteers who completed pregnancy without pathologies and with a normal full-term new-born baby.

Study group (SG)

One hundred women with diagnosis of severe PE. Tested for aPL: at time of severe PE onset and followed until birth. We stratified SG according to weeks of gestation at the time of diagnosis of severe PE (early and late PE), cut-off point of 34 weeks.

We compare the frequency of aPL positivity between control versus SG.

We’ve preformed two comparisons.

a) Healthy Controls and patients with severe preeclampsia.

b) In the study group comparison of early severe preeclampsia and late severe preeclampsia.

Results

We compared the presence of aPL between Control 10.0% (4/40) and SG 34.0% (34/100). We found an association between severe PE and aPL positivity [OR = 4.63 (95% CI: 1.523 – 14.107), p = .005].

We confirmed an association between early severe PE and the presence of aPL positivity [OR = 4384 (95% CI: 1.3615 – 14.1206), p = .01]. We also found an association between late severe PE and the presence of aPL positivity [OR = 5.0 (95% CI: 1.4901 – 16.777), p = .008].

Conclusion

These results suggest that the presence of aPL is associated to severe PE. The positivity of aPL is associated to severity of PE, independently from gestational age.