Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome-Diagnostic Issues of Lupus Anticoagulants

Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome is a serious autoimmune disorder which can lead to multisystem manifestations from recurrent thrombosis to pregnancy loss to intrauterine death and other obstetric morbidities. In few cases it may lead to catastrophic syndrome. Antiphospholipid antibodies are circulating antibodies which bind with the plasma proteins which in turn bind to phospholipids and thus lead to pathogenesis. Despite of so many researches done in the field of APLA, the mechanisms leading to obstetric complications are still debatable. Antiphospholipid antibodies are detected on the basis of solid phase assays which comprised of anticardiolipin (acl) antibody and Anti β2 glycoprotein (aB2GP) and the other one is liquid phase assays which identifies lupus anticoagulants (LAC). While aB2GP and acl are being detected most commonly by ELISA, LAC is being detected by clot based test. Lupus anticoagulant is a double misnomer as most patients don't have systemic lupus erythematous and in vivo reacts as procoagulants.