[Anti-cardiolipin antibodies in Horton's disease]

A prospective study on 11 patients with temporal artery biopsy-proven arteritis examined the frequency and significance of anti-cardiolipin antibodies. Antibody levels in 7 patients were higher than 20 units but were not correlated with an inflammatory syndrome, as assessed by measurement of 4 inflammatory proteins (fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, orosomucoid and haptoglobin). These 7 patients were treated with steroids and their antibody levels returned to the normal range after 4 to 16 weeks of therapy, later than the inflammatory proteins. Two patients had slight increases of their anti-cardiolipin antibody levels, but no signs of clinical relapse or increases of inflammatory proteins were observed. In this study, no correlation was found between the presence of anti-cardiolipin antibodies and the occurrence of ischemic complications in 6 of the 11 patients.