Objective: To evaluate if antimitochondrial type 5 antibodies (AMA5) might be included among antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) markers.
Methods: In a retrospective study, blood variables of 48 patients with AMA5 were analyzed in relationship with clinical and biological markers of APS and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
Results: We observed a high prevalence of false biological test for syphilis (95%), lupus anticoagulant (LAC) (71%), anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL) of IgG (71%) and IgM (75%) isotype, positive direct Coombs' test (54%), thrombocytopenia (52%), anti-B2 glycoprotein I antibodies (38%). Twenty-nine patients (61%) had at least one clinical manifestation of APS; 42% had recurrent arterial and/or venous deep thrombosis and 21% had recurrent fetal loss. But, for 2 patients, AMA5 were the sole detected immunological marker. Moreover, SLE was observed in 35% of the patients. These were different from 100 control patients with SLE with the respect to skin involvement and dsDNA antibodies which were less frequent (p < 0.01) and aCL, LAC, false biological test for syphilis (p < 0.001), positive direct Coombs' test and thrombocytopenia (p < 0.05) which were more frequent.
Conclusion: Our data suggests (1) AMA5 is another marker of the APS (2) in patients with SLE, AMA5 seems to be a marker of a subset of SLE. This appears to justify the routine detection of these antibodies.