Antiphospholipid Antibodies in Women with Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection

Background: A variety of infections, including acute and recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs), can trigger production of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL). These antibodies in women can lead to recurrent pregnancy loss. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of aPL in recurrent UTI patients.Materials and Methods: A total 52 subjects who had positive urine culture and 50 healthy individuals as controls were evaluated for presence of lupus anticoagulant (LA), anticardiolipin, anti-β2 GPI(anti-𝛽2-glycoprotein I) autoantibodies IgM and IgG and Interleukin-8 levels. Determination of lupus anticoagulant was done by Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time (aPTT). Anticardiolipin and anti-β2 GPI autoantibodies were evaluated by ELISA method. Interleukin-8 values were also evaluated using ELISA method. Results: Escherichia coli (86.61%) and Proteus mirabilis (1.92%) had the highest and lowest frequency respectively. The prevalence of anti- β2 GPI IgG and IgM isotypes and anticardiolipin IgG and IgM isotypes or LA in UTI patients and healthy controls was 0.0%. There was significant association between neutrophil counts and IL-8 levels at the p < 0.01.Conclusion: Our results showed that in the UTI group and controls evaluated antiphospholipid antibodies were not present. The production of antiphospholipid antibodies is influenced by various genetic and environmental factors and chronic urinary tract infection alone is not the cause. This can affect the prevalence of antiphospholipid antibodies in various populations. However, other factors, such as the type of antiphospholipid antibody, sampling season and methodology can affect the results.