Anticardiolipin Antibodies in Hemophiliac and Nonhemophiliac Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C

Anticardiolipin antibodies (ACA) have been de tected in a variety of infectious diseases, especially viral infec tions. ACA also have been described in human immunodefi ciency virus (HIV)-infected hemophiliacs. Recently the pres ence of ACA in hemophiliac and nonhemophiliac patients with chronic hepatitis C virus has been reported. We performed a case-controlled study to establish if ACA are present in hemo philia and if they are due to the hepatitis C infection; and to confirm the association between ACA and hepatitis C infec tions in nonhemophiliac patients. Anticardiolipin antibodies have been studied in the serum of 62 hemophiliacs with chronic hepatitis C virus and in the control group (70 hepatitis C- negative patients with hemophilia or other clotting disorders). ACA were positive in only three hepatitis C-positive hemo philiac patients and in three hepatitis C-negative patients with hemophilia or other coagulation defects (first control group). No significant statistical differences were found in the groups (OR = 1.1; 95% CI 0.2-7.4, p = .6). Sixteen of 111 nonhe mophiliacs with chronic hepatitis C were positive for ACA while in 100 matched hepatitis C-negative subjects (second control group) anticardiolipin antibodies were positive in 9 pa tients. ACA tended to be higher in hepatitis C-positive nonhe mophiliac patients than in the control group, but the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (OR = 1.7, 95% CI 0.7-4.4, p = .3). ACA do not seem to be associ ated with the chronic hepatitis C virus.