Screening psychiatric admissions for anticardiolipin antibody

Anticardiolipin antibody (aCL) may provide an instrument for screening in neuropsychiatric syndromes due to cerebral ischemia. Thirty-five psychiatric patients, aCL-positive on admission, were matched against aCL-negative patients. Their clinical records on admission and after 2-years of follow-up were analyzed without knowledge of aCL results. An inventory was made of cerebrovascular and systemic vascular symptoms. In 13 out of 35 aCL-positive cases, vascular morbidity, suggesting ischemic causes of central nervous system pathology, could be demonstrated during follow-up and none in the comparison group. No correlation was found, however, between Hachinski ischemic scores on admission and aCL-positivity. Yet, if only on the basis of increased incidence of subsequent ischemia, the aCL-IgG/M isotype appears to be a valuable predictor of vascular neuropsychiatric symptoms.