Background: Classification of the antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) relies predominantly on detecting antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs). Antibodies against a domain I (DI) epitope of anti-β2glycoprotein I (β2GPI) proved to be pathogenic, but are not included in the current classification criteria.
Objectives: Investigate the clinical value of detecting anti-DI IgG in APS.
Patients/methods: From eight European centers 1005 patients were enrolled. Anti-cardiolipin (CL) and anti-β2GPI were detected by four commercially available solid phase assays; anti-DI IgG by the QUANTA Flash® β2GPI domain I assay.
Results: Odds ratios (ORs) of anti-DI IgG for thrombosis and pregnancy morbidity proved to be higher than those of the conventional assays. Upon restriction to patients positive for anti-β2GPI IgG, anti-DI IgG positivity still resulted in significant ORs. When anti-DI IgG was added to the criteria aPLs or used as a substitute for anti-β2GPI IgG/anti-CL IgG, ORs for clinical symptoms hardly improved. Upon removing anti-DI positive patients, lupus anticoagulant remained significantly correlated with clinical complications. Anti-DI IgG are mainly present in high-risk triple positive patients, showing higher levels. Combined anti-DI and triple positivity confers a higher risk for clinical symptoms compared to only triple positivity.
Conclusions: Detection of anti-DI IgG resulted in higher ORs for clinical manifestations than the current APS classification criteria. Regardless of the platform used to detect anti-β2GPI/anti-CL, addition of anti-DI IgG measured by QUANTA Flash® did not improve the clinical associations, possibly due to reduced exposure of the pathogenic epitope of DI. Our results demonstrate that anti-DI IgG potentially helps in identifying high-risk patients.
Keywords: antiphospholipid syndrome; domain I; multicenter; pregnancy morbidity; thrombosis; β2-glycoprotein I.
© 2019 International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis.