TY - JOUR T1 - Clinical manifestations of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) with and without antiphospholipid antibodies (the so-called ‘seronegative APS’) JF - Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases JO - Ann Rheum Dis SP - 242 LP - 244 DO - 10.1136/annrheumdis-2011-200614 VL - 71 IS - 2 AU - Jose Luis Rodriguez-Garcia AU - Maria Laura Bertolaccini AU - Maria Jose Cuadrado AU - Giovanni Sanna AU - Oier Ateka-Barrutia AU - Munther A Khamashta Y1 - 2012/02/01 UR - http://ard.bmj.com/content/71/2/242.abstract N2 - Objectives Although the medical literature currently provides a growing number of isolated case reports of patients with clinically well-defined antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) and persistently negative antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL), there are no studies including a series of patients addressing the clinical features of this condition. Methods The authors assessed clinical manifestations of APS in 154 patients: 87 patients with seropositive APS and 67 patients with thrombosis and/or pregnancy morbidity persistently negative for aPL and presenting with at least two additional non-criteria manifestations of APS (the so-called ‘seronegative APS’, SN-APS). Patients were interviewed at the time of recruitment, and a retrospective file review was carried out. Results There were no significant differences in the frequency of thrombotic events or obstetric morbidity in patients with SN-APS versus patients with seropositive APS: deep vein thrombosis (31.4% vs 31.0%), pulmonary embolism (23.8% vs 28.7%), stroke (14.9% vs 17.2%), transient ischaemic attack (11.9% vs 10.3%), early spontaneous abortions (67.1% vs 52.1%), stillbirths (62.5% vs 59.4%), prematurity (28.1% vs 21.7%) or pre-eclampsia (28.1% vs 23.1%). Conclusions Classic and SN-APS patients show similar clinical profiles. The results suggest that clinical management in patients with APS should not be based only on the presence of conventional aPL. ER -