Prevalence of Antiphospholipid Antibodies May Signal Future Risk of MI, Stroke

 Does your doctor and stroke hospital have enough brains to include this as a testing protocol and an intervention protocol to prevent these problems from occurring? Competent persons would.

And your doctor should have known about this a decade ago:

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Prevalence of Antiphospholipid Antibodies May Signal Future Risk of MI, Stroke

Seemingly healthy people whose blood contained antibodies associated with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) were significantly more likely to experience a cardiovascular event, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.

“In this population-based cohort study including 2,427 participants, the prevalence

of any antiphospholipid antibodies tested by solid-phase assays at a single time point was 14.5%, with approximately one-third of those detected at a moderate or high titre,” reported James de Lemos, MD, University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, Texas, and colleagues. “The IgA [immunoglobulin A] isotypes of anticardiolipin and anti-beta-2 glycoprotein I were associated with future atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease events.”

The research team tested blood that had been collected from study participants between 2007 and 2009 and looked for the presence and amounts of 8 different antiphospholipid antibodies. They analysed these data along with questionnaire responses gathered during a follow-up period that averaged 8 years to see which participants experienced a cardiovascular event, including myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, coronary bypass surgery, or death from cardiovascular disease.

The researchers detected antiphospholipid antibodies in about 14.5% of the 2,427 study participants. About a third of those had antibody levels that were considered moderate or high. Over the follow-up period, 125 individuals experienced cardiovascular events.

After adjusting for risk factors such as age, sex, race, body mass index, smoking history, cholesterol levels, and diabetes, the researchers found that the presence of 2 particular antiphospholipid antibodies -- aCL IgA and ab2GPI IgA -- was associated with a future cardiovascular event. In participants with relatively higher levels of these 2 antibodies, this connection was even stronger.

Dr. de Lemos noted that because antibody levels can be transient and blood samples were done on a single visit, more studies are needed to better understand whether antiphospholipid antibodies remain elevated in people without diagnosed APS and how this might relate to heart disease.

Ravi Sarode, MD, University of Texas Southwestern, said that if further research supports the study’s initial findings, labs would be able to test patients for antiphospholipid antibodies.

“These antibodies are easy to test; we test them all the time in our lab for certain patients,” said Dr. Sarode. “It is very important to note that very few labs test for these specific antibodies. However, we would need more information to use them in the right clinical setting for patients who may be at higher risk of MI or stroke.”

Reference: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2803031

SOURCE: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center