Pulmonary hypertension and the antiphospholipid syndrome.

It is nowwell knownthat symptomssuch as arterial and venous thrombosis, recurrent fetal loss, central nervous system involvement and thrombocytopenia in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are associated with the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies. In addition, antiphospholipid antibodies can be found in patients with no other apparent autoimmune diseases and maycause cerebral infarction, myocardial infarction and other thromboembolitic complications. The term "antiphospholipid syndrome" (APS) is given to these conditions. Many studies have established the importance of anti-