Lupus anticoagulants are stronger risk factors for thrombosis than anticardiolipin antibodies in the antiphospholipid syndrome: a systematic review of the literature

To formally establish the risk of lupus anticoagulants and anticardiolipin antibodies for arterial and venous thrombosis, we ran a MEDLINE search of the literature from 1988 to 2000. Studies were selected for their case-control (11), prospective (9), cross-sectional (3), and ambispective (2) design. They provided or enabled us to calculate the odds ratio with 95% confidence interval (CI) of lupus anticoagulants and/or anticardiolipin antibodies for thrombosis in 4184 patients and 3151 controls. Studies were grouped according to the antibody investigated. Five studies compared lupus anticoagulants with anticardiolipin antibodies: the odds ratio with 95% CI of lupus anticoagulants for thrombosis was always…