High-sensitivity C-reactive protein: Discriminator between patients with primary and secondary antiphospholipid syndrome

Objective It is not clear whether primary (PAPS) or secondary (SAPS) antiphospholipid syndrome represent distinct clinical entities or whether they are the same syndrome seen against different background. Therefore we examined whether hsCRP, C3, C4 and anti-oxLDL antibodies could discriminate between PAPS and SAPS patients. Design and methods This study included: 44 patients with PAPS and 20 patients with SAPS associated with SLE and 37 control subjects. Antibody levels were estimated by ELISA, while C3, C4 and hsCRP were determined by immunonephelometric method. Results SAPS patients had significantly elevated hsCRP (mg/L) concentrations in comparison to PAPS patients (8.00 (7.00–15.00) vs. 2.27 (0.68–6.89), Mann–Whitney, p = 0.000). Conclusion Measurement of hsCRP should be mandatory in the follow-up of SAPS patients in order to identify a subset with a high cardiovascular risk and in PAPS in order to identify patients with a risk of evolving to SLE.