Concurrent protein C deficiency and lupus anticoagulants

An inherited deficiency of protein C, a recognized hypercoagulable state, may cause a clinically significant deep venous thrombosis. Only some persons with a deficiency of protein C experience thrombosis, and almost always the thrombotic event occurs in the venous circulation. Warfarin-induced skin necrosis, a rare event observed in some patients soon after treatment with warfarin is begun, is believed to be another manifestation of this deficiency. We describe a young woman whose basal functional and antigenic levels of protein C were about 45% and who experienced both deep venous thrombosis and warfarin-induced skin necrosis in a clinically severe course. Evidence for lupus anticoagulants was present, with prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time that was corrected when lysed platelets were added, prolonged Russell's viper venom time, anticardiolipin antibodies, and other laboratory evidence. Lupus anticoagulants are associated also with a significant incidence of thrombosis, including arterial thrombosis, and this patient developed concurrently arterial thrombosis. The combined effects of protein C deficiency and lupus anticoagulants, exacerbated by other potentially thrombogenic conditions, are believed responsible for the severe thrombotic events experienced by this patient.