Anti-cardiolipin antibodies in sexual partners of recurrent aborters

The presence of anti-cardiolipin antibodies (aCL) in women is anestablished risk factor for fetal loss, but these autoantibodies had notpreviously been investigated in the male partners of recurrent aborters.The prevalence of aCL in 144 male partners of couples with a history ofrecurrent miscarriage was 4.2%, which compares with 2.8% for 177 femalepartners of such couples, 5.9% of 254 blood donors (128 male, 126 female)and 0% of 74 women of good obstetric history sampled in the puerperium. Inrecurrent miscarriage couples, the presence of aCL in the women wasassociated with a poorer history and outlook, but these associations werenot evident in couples where the male partner had aCL. The aCL of malepartners also differed from those of their spouses in being less likely toshow higher activity towards phosphatidylserine than towardsphosphatidylcholine. A particular sub- population of aCL may be stronglyrepresented in the male partners, the clinical significance of whichremains to be established.