Objective: The aim of the study was to report about a patient with discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE) who developed antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) 12 years after DLE diagnosis and review related literature.
Patients and methods: This is a case report of a 34-year-old woman with DLE who developed APS. A review of articles published in the PubMed/MEDLINE, LILACS, and SciELO databases from 1966 to October 2020 was conducted using the following search terms: "antiphospholipid syndrome," "antiphospholipid antibodies," and "discoid lupus erythematosus" No language limitation was applied.
Results: Besides the present case, 5 case reports were identified. One case-control and two cross-sectional studies on antiphospholipid antibodies with or without APS in DLE were also reviewed. These studies revealed that APS can develop even 37 years after DLE was diagnosed. The case-control study found that patients with DLE have more anticardiolipin antibodies than controls. In contrast, one cross-sectional study showed a low prevalence of antiphospholipid antibodies in their group of patients, which was similar to findings in the general population.
Conclusions: This study reviewed previous articles on DLE cases associated with antiphospholipid antibodies and/or APS, adding a new case description.