Clinical characteristics | Prevalence No (%) |
Systemic autoimmune diseases | 231/370 (62.4) |
Systemic lupus erythematosus | 132/370 (35.7) |
Others* | 99/370 (26.8) |
None | 139/370 (37.6) |
Women who were or had been pregnant | 215/344 (62.5) |
Obstetric APS† | 124/215 (57.7) |
No obstetric APS | 91/215 (42.3) |
Thrombophylic risk factors | |
Pregnancy/puerperium | 68/215 (31.6) |
Smoking | 66/370 (17.8) |
Hypertension (systolic >140, diastolic >90) | 50/370 (13.5) |
Total cholesterol (>240 mg/dl) | 33/370 (8.9) |
Age >55 years | 24/370 (6.5) |
BMI >85th centile | 9/370 (2.4) |
Pill/hormone replacement therapy | 7/344 (2.0) |
Diabetes mellitus | 1/370 (0.3) |
Prophylaxis | |
Long term‡ | 139/370 (37.6) |
Only during high-risk periods§ | 48/370 (13.0) |
*Thirty-one undifferentiated connective tissue disease, 37 autoimmune thyroiditis, 10 autoimmune thrombocytopenia, 9 rheumatoid arthritis, 9 systemic sclerosis, 7 Sjögren’s syndrome and 21 other autoimmune diseases; 32 patients had more than one autoimmune disease contemporaneously; †90 fetal loss (type a), 30 premature birth (type b) and 23 early abortion (type c); 18 of the women had more than one type of pregnancy morbidity contemporaneously; ‡134 with LDA and 5 with warfarin; §17 with LDA, 25 with heparin and 6 with both.
aPL, antiphospholipid antibody; APS, antiphospholipid syndrome; BMI, body mass index; LDA, low-dose aspirin.