Studies on the Association between the Anticardiolipin Antibody and Preeclampsia

In order to evaluate the implication of autoimmune mechanisms in the genesis of preeclampsia, two studies were comprised this work. The one is the assessment of the prevalence of the anticardiolipin antibody in patients with severe preeclampsia. The other is the clinical trial of the prophylaxis of preeclampsia in patients experiencing severe preeclampsia and/or intrauterine fetal growth retardation (IUGR). The positive rate of anticardiolipin antibody in cases with severe preeclampsia was significantly higher than that in normotensive pregnant women. The medication, which consisted of low doses aspirin and a traditional Chinese herbal medicine Sairei-To (Chan-Ling Tang) -which is reported to have glucocorticoid-like effect, was administered to 7 patients who had experienced severe preeclampsia with positive anticardiolipin antibody since the early stage of their new pregnancy. In one case glucocorticoid was also administered. Of seven patients, 5 patients delivered normal sized infants without preeclampsia with the improvement of autoimmune abnormalities. Undersized infants were delivered accompanied by manifestations of preeclampsia in the remaining 2 patients in whom significantly high titers of anticardiolipin antibody continued during their prenatal course. These data indicate that preeclampsia is one of the clinical entities of reproductive autoimmune failure syndrome (RAFS), and that the prediction and prophylaxis of preeclampsia might be possible from the viewpoint of autoimmunity