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Recent reports have shown the importance of new risk factors for ischaemic stroke and myocardial infarction. An article by Grainger et al reports that antinuclear antibodies (ANA) are more prevalent in subjects with severe coronary atherosclerosis than in healthy subjects.1
The authors’ statement that the association is a potential indicator of increased risk of coronary heart disease is not fully supported by data obtained in our study. The authors affirm that ANA, determined by the immunofluorescent method in HEp-2000 cells, were detected at a titre of at least 1/40 in 28/40 (70%) subjects with severe stenoses of three main coronary arteries. In contrast ANA were detected in 5/30 (17%) subjects with no evidence of coronary atherosclerosis.
Our study mainly aimed at investigating the relationship between anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL), and β2-glycoprotein I antibodies (a-β2GPI), their association with increased risk of ischaemic stroke (IS) and myocardial infarction (MI), and the occurrence of clinical recurrence of ischaemic events as IS, MI, unstable angina or transient ischaemic attack (TIA). The study group comprised 139 …