Antiphospholipid Syndrome

Question: antiphospholipid syndrome? I just had a miscarriage but don't have APS. But my husband was just recently diagnosed with it. Is it possible that since my husband has it, it could be the cause of the miscarriage?? We have two other children and were both healthy pregnancies and are healthy children so I am trying to find an answer as to why the third one ended in a miscarriage.

Answer: No one can tell for sure why a miscarriage happens, implantation didnt take, too many unknown reasons for miscarriages to occur

Question: Birth control for those with antiphospholipid syndrome? I have lupus and antiphospholipid syndrome so I can't take birth control pills and most other hormonal birth control. However, when I used to go to UCLA medical center a couple doctors mentioned some sort of injection that would be ok for me, I just can't remember what it was called and I don't see those doctors anymore. Does anyone know what injection they could have been talking about or any other form of birth control that is not the usual non-hormonal birth control (condoms, spermicide, etc.)? If you don't know, those with APLS have a high risk of blood clots when we take hormonal birth control.

Answer: this question is very specific and needs to be answered by your gyn.

Question: Can infectious diseases trigger antiphospholipid syndrome ? Can certain infectious diseases such as HIV, HSV-2, chlamydia, and other viruses trigger your immune system to produce antiphospholipid antibodies ? Is there any correlation ?

Answer: Researchers still aren't clear on exactly what causes this syndrome. It should be mentioned that up to 2% of the 'normal' population carries antiphospholipid antibodies without any actual disease process. And yes, certain viral, parasite, and bacterial infections can result in the presence of temporary harmless antiphospholipid antibodies (HIV, malaria, viral hepatitis...not sure about HSV) -- that is they cause no known disease in these patients and disappear shortly after. That is the only connection I know of with infectious diseases and this syndrome. Take care,

Question: Question about antiphospholipid syndrome? Hi, A few years back my Father suffered a mild stroke (he's ok now). After alot of hoo-ha he was finally diagnosed as having antiphospholipid syndrome. Myself and my sister were tested for this and luckily results were negative. I just wanted to know if this could come up later in our lives? Or does a negative result mean we will never get it?

Answer: Care must be taken when interpreting the results of antiphospholipid antibody tests. A negative result means only that the specific antibody tested was not present at the time of the test. Low to moderate levels of one or more antibodies may occur temporarily due to an infection or drug or may appear as a person ages. These concentrations are often not considered significant but must be examined in conjunction with a patient’s symptoms and other clinical information. In some cases, a person may have one or more classes of a specific antibody present or absent. For instance, they may have significant quantities of IgG and IgM cardiolipin antibodies or they may only be positive for the less frequently tested IgA cardiolipin antibody. Moderate to high levels of one or more antiphospholipid antibodies, which persist when tested again 8 to10 weeks later, indicate the likely continued presence of that specific antibody.

Question: is there any medicine to get pregnant with antiphospholipid syndrome? i recently found out i had antiphospholipid syndrome and thats the main cause for misscariages and i was told there was medicine but anytime i ever do research i cant find anything. does anyone know how much it costs and what the brand is called

Answer: Here is some information on it: http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/antip… I take heparin shots called Lovenox. They are extremely expensive ($1,000.00 per month) if you don't have insurance. I don't have what you do, but I do have a history of blood clots. The article recommends the different things people can do to help ensure a good pregnancy. I have had several miscarriages, but am not sure if they were related to my problem. I do have a daughter, and I'm 17 weeks pregnant now with no complications so far. Good luck!

Question: Would someone with antiphospholipid syndrome have an increase of factor 8, or a decrease? Also, is there any other interesting information you have on this disorder?

Answer: That would be an increase of Factor 8.

Question: Antiphospholipid syndrome. If treated with blood thinners what is the pregnancy risk THEN? I've read tons of information about it and I know it increases risks for the baby and the mother but what happens if you're on the heparin and the lovenox (LOvenox)? Any statistics? I didn't have these questions Monday when I was diagnosed and I don't know when I'll see my doctor again so I thought I'd ask for someone's personal experience with ASP and blood thinners. Thanks.

Answer: I think I understand your question better now. After my first pregnancy I was put on coumadin for a while and then later baby aspirin. And after this past pregnancy I stayed on the Lovenox instead of the coumadin for 6 weeks. I had the choice of the coumandin or the Lovenox, but I chose the Lovenox simply because I didn't have to go for blood test every week or so with it. And now I am on baby aspirin again. And as long as I don't get another clot then I don't have to go back to stronger blood thinners. And from the little research I did online ASP is related to Lupus and other autoimmune disorders if I am understanding correctly. My uncle has had Lupus for over thirty years now. And he is doing fine. He has had some really scary moments with it, but he is in his 70's and doing pretty well. My mother has RA and she has been on predinsone for almost 20 years. And she is doing very well considering the severity of her RA, I am still not sure if this is what you are asking- but I thought I would give it a shot.

Question: Has anyone been diagnosed with Antiphospholipid Syndrome? How did you find out, did you have any miscarriages? Thinking this might be going on with me, Doctor said from last miscarriage this could of been the problem. Both previous miscarriages were at 14-15 weeks, I do have other children before these miscarriages, and I am pregnant now and taking an aspirin a day as instructed by my doctor...thanks!

Answer: I'm sorry for your losses. I also lost a baby at 15 weeks. Test showed she was normal so they suspect the issues were with the placenta. I'm in the 2ww (1 day to go) but have already been taking a daily baby aspirin for the past week. Diagnoses is done by a antiphospholipid antibodies blood test. Sometimes they will also run a PT/PTT blood test which times how fast your blood clots. It's an autoimmune disorder which can cause abnormal clotting (thrombosis) of arteries (stroke, infarction) and/or veins (phlebitis), premature miscarriages (spontaneous abortions), abnormally low blood platelet counts (thrombocytopenia), purplish mottling discoloration of the skin (livedo reticularis), migraine headaches, and a rare form of inflammation of the nervous tissue of the brain or spinal cord, called transverse myelitis. Antiphospholipid antibodies have also been detected in over half of patients with the immune disease systemic lupus erythematosus.

Question: What can I expect from a condition known as "antiphospholipid syndrome"? Concerned. Would appreciate feedback from women who went through pregnacies with same medical condition. Thanks.

Answer: well, in this syndrome you are more prone to suffering from thrombo embolism, The antiphospholipid syndrome is a disorder of the immune system that is characterized by excessive clotting of blood and/or certain complications of pregnancy (premature miscarriages, unexplained fetal death, or premature birth) and the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies (cardiolipin or lupus anticoagulant antibodies) in the blood. Patients with antiphospholipid syndrome have developed abnormal symptoms you can suffer abortions. But u can have a pregnancy under the supervision of a a doctor., i hope this helps.

Question: When is the antiphospholipid syndrome (Hughes syndrome or sticky blood syndrome) treated with chemotherapy? This condition gave me a pulmonary systemic vasculitis, is this enough reason to give both Prednisone and Cytoxan?

Answer: Please see the web pages for more details on Antiphospholipid syndrome. Often, this disease is treated by giving aspirin to inhibit platelet activation, and/or warfarin as an anticoagulant. The goal of the prophylactic treatment is to maintain the patient's INR between 2.0–3.0. It is not usually done in patients who have not had any thrombotic symptoms.