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Clinical features

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Due to the diversity of the condition antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) may affect all organ systems of the body.

The clinical features are presented according to the systems affected:

  • thrombosis
    • venous thrombosis and associated complications
      • is more common than arterial thrombosis
      • in a cohort of 1000 patients, 32% presented with deep vein thrombosis in the leg as the initial symptom while in 14%, pulmonary embolism was the first symptom
      • renal, hepatic, subclavian and retinal veins; cerebral sinuses and vena cava are also at a higher risk for thrombotic events when compared to thrombosis not related antiphospholipid syndrome
    • arterial thrombosis
      • most common initial clinical manifestations are stroke (in 13%) and transient ischemic attack (in 7%)
    • recurrent thrombosis
  • cerebral involvement
    • is common and include - cerebral ischemia, migraine, cognitive dysfunction, seizures, chorea, psychosis, depression, Guillain-Barre syndrome
    • a link between valvular heart disease and CNS manifestations of the syndrome has been reported
  • cardiac manifestations
    • non bacterial thrombotic endocarditis
    • myocardial infarction
  • renal manifestations
    • due to thrombosis of the renal vasculature, rapid decline of the renal function can occur
  • haematological manifestation
    • thrombocytopaenia
    • haemolytic anaemia
    • dermal symptoms e.g. - lividoreticularis
  • maternal and fetal effects
    • recurrent early miscarriages
    • intrauterine fetal death
    • early or severe pre-eclampsia (or both)
    • intrauterine growth restriction (1)
  • endocrine
  • dermatological

Reference:


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The content herein is provided for informational purposes and does not replace the need to apply professional clinical judgement when diagnosing or treating any medical condition. A licensed medical practitioner should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

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