Anticuerpos anticardiolipina en ni？os y ni？as costarricenses con Lupus Eritematoso Sistémico

aim: to establish the frequency and clinical correlations of the anticardiolipin antibodies (acla) in patients attended at the systemic lupus erythematosus (sle) clinic of the immunology and pediatric rheumatology department (hospital nacional de ni？os "dr. carlos sáenz herrera"). to determine the frequency of igg-acla and igmacla in patients with juvenile sle followed in the sle-clinic. to describe the thromboembolic and hemorrhagic complications observed in the acla positive group, and the differences between acla positive and negative patients. to correlate the acla positivity with different socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of pediatric sle patients. methods: it is a retrospective study, in which we checked the medical files of patients followed at the sle-clinic between january of 2000 and january 2006, in order to identify the frequency of positive acla, as well as the association of these antibodies with the presence of thrombotic or hemorrhagic events that suggest antiphospholipid syndrome. results: acla positivity was identify in up to 49% of the sle patients. definitive secondary antiphospholipid syndrome was diagnosed in 3 cases (7,3%) (two girls and 1 boy); possible antiphospholipid syndrome was diagnosed in 7 cases (17%). we were not able to demonstrate a statistically significant effect on acla and the variables sex, age, province or quantity of sle diagnostic criteria in the onset of the disease. there was no significant effect on acla and the frequency of thrombotic or hemorrhagic events (p>0.05). conclusions: the percentage of secondary antiphospholipid syndrome in costarrican juvenile sle patients does not differ from the one described for other series (24.4% vs. 20% with p>0.05). on the other hand, the prevalence of acla positive in costarrican juvenile sle patients is lower than the one described in other series (48.8% vs. 87% with p<0.05). the statistical analysis allows inferring that the children with sle have the half of possibil