The anticardiolipin syndrome. A new way to slice an old pie, or a new pie to slice?

Students of systemic lupus erythematosus have long been confused by the paradoxical association of atypical clinical features such as recurrent thrombosis and spontaneous abortion with the lupus anticoagulant and biologic false-positive VDRL reaction. The recent development of sensitive, solid-phase immunoassays for quantitating the autoantibody response to phospholipids holds the promise of illuminating the basis for this seeming enigma. It is now apparent that antiphospholipids antibodies such as anticardiolipin might well play a role in mediating the elements of this paradox. In addition, other cutaneous vascular conditions as diverse as livedo reticularis and Degos' disease might also be related to this type of autoimmune response.