Anti-cardiolipin and anti-beta2-glycoprotein I antibodies in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) frequently suffer from thromboembolic events. Anti-cardiolipin (aCL) antibodies have been shown to be associated with thrombosis. Recently, the antibodies against the anti-cardiolipin cofactor β 2 -glycoprotein I (aβ 2 GPI) have been found with higher specificity for thrombosis. The presence of these antibodies was assessed in 128 patients with IBD [83 with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 45 with Crohn's disease (CD)] and 100 healthy controls (blood donors). Patients with UC and CD had a significantly higher prevalence of aCL (18.1% and 15.6%, respectively) than healthy controls (HC) (3%). Eleven IBD patients (8.6%) but no HC had aβ 2 GPI. None of the IBD patients with a history of thrombosis had aCL and only one of them (a UC patient with deep vein thrombosis of the right leg) had a high titer of IgG aβ 2 GPI. In conclusion, these data show that both aCL and aβ 2 GPI are significantly associated with IBD but further studies are needed to determine the significance of our findings.