Anticardiolipin antibodies and pregnancy outcome in women with human immunodeficiency virus infection.
Abnormal anticardiolipin antibodies are associated with adverse pregnancy outcome in the general obstetric population. We studied 55 pregnancies in women infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) to examine two hypotheses: that a substantial proportion of these women would have raised anticardiolipin antibodies, and that the affected pregnancies would be more likely to be complicated by preterm delivery and intrauterine growth retardation. Blood was taken at the initial antenatal visit, and was also taken from 15 HIV-seronegative intravenous (IV) drug users and 20 controls with no drug history. The reference for immunoglobulin G class antibodies to cardiolipin was calculated from 50 healthy young adults, and the upper limit of normal was defined as 4 standard deviations above the mean for this reference series. Twenty-four percent of the infected women, but none of the HIV-seronegative IV drug users and none of the control group, had raised anticardiolipin antibodies. There was no statistically significant relationship with birth weight, standardized birth weight, length, gestation, occipitofrontal circumference, or adverse pregnancy outcome. No women gave a history of thromboembolism or recurrent abortion, and in no pregnancy was there clinically apparent thromboembolism. We conclude that abnormal anticardiolipin antibodies provoked by HIV infection are common, but probably have a narrow specificity for cardiolipin, are unrelated to phospholipid antibody syndrome, and cannot explain adverse pregnancy outcome in HIV-infected women.