Anticardiolipin antibodies in acute rheumatic fever and chronic rheumatic heart disease: Is there a significant association?

Objective. The incidence and significance of IgG and IgM anticardiolipin in antibodies (aCLa) in patients with acute rheumatic fever (ARF), chronic rheumatic heart disease (CRHD) and streptococcal pharyngitis have been investigated in order to determine whether these antibodies play an important role in the pathogenesis and if they are markers that can be used to confirm disease activity. Methods. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure the IgG and IgM aCLa levels. aCLa levels of patients were considered positive if they were gr-eater than 3.0 standard deviations above the mean for healthy children. Results. No significant difference in aCLa levels was found between patients with rheumatic fever or streptococcal pharyngitis and healthy controls, and aCLa concentrations did not correlate with the acute phase reactant levels. Conclusions. aCLa in patients with ARF and CRHD do not appear to be markers of disease activity, and our data suggest that aCLa do not play nit important role in the pathogenesis of rheumatic fever.