Prevalence and significance of anticardiolipin, anti-β2 glycoprotein I and anti-prothrombin antibodies in chronic hepatitis C

Antiphospholipid antibodies have been demonstrated in chronic hepatitis C, but their clinical and pathogenetic significance remains elusive. We prospectively studied 115 patients (85 men, mean age 369 years) with chronic hepatitis C without cirrhosis and treated by alpha-interferon (alpha-IFN). Antiphospholipid determinations comprised anticardiolipin (ACA), anti-beta(2)-glycoprotein I and anti-prothrombin antibodies of the IgG and IgM classes. At entry, 24 patients (21%) were found to possess low to moderate ACA levels (18 IgG, two IgM and four both isotypes) compared with only 4/115 age- and sex-matched control subjects (3.5% P = 0.001). ACA positivity rate increased to 31% (P = 0.01) after a 6-month course of alpha-IFN treatment. In contrast, the prevalence of anti-beta(2)-glycoprotein I and anti-prothrombin antibodies was not significantly different from controls at either time point. The presence of ACA correlated with that of antinuclear antibodies (P = 0.0002), but was not associated with parameters such as histological activity, viral burden and response to alpha-IFN, nor with a history of thrombosis or pregnancy loss. However, a non-significant trend of higher incidence of mild thrombocytopenia among ACA-positive patients was observed. We conclude that low-titre ACA positivity is a common finding in patients with chronic hepatitis C, especially following alpha-IFN treatment, but does not select a category with different clinical features. These data are in keeping with the absence of associated anti-beta(2)GPI and anti-prothrombin antibodies, and do not support a role for HCV infection in the pathogenesis of the antiphospholipid syndrome.