Rheumatology 2000; 39: 108-110
© 2000 British Society for Rheumatology
Letters to the Editor |
Antiphospholipid syndrome with proliferative vasculopathy and bowel infarction
Department of Medicine, Groote Schuur Hospital, J47 Old Main Building, Cape Town, South Africa,
1 Directorate of Pathology, Royal United Hospital, Bath BA1 3NG and
2 Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Bath BA1 1RL, UK
Correspondence to:
Y. I. Patel.
Sir, Since antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) was first described in 1983 [1], many complications have been reported which result from vascular occlusion as a result of thrombosis [2]. More recently, a few cases have been described where a proliferative vasculopathy appears to have been the major mechanism of vascular occlusion rather than thrombosis or vasculitis [3–5]. Relatively few cases have been described with intestinal infarction as a result of vascular occlusion from this `proliferative vasculopathy' of APS [6–9]. We describe one such patient who had massive intestinal infarction as a result of a proliferative vasculopathy involving the coeliac, superior mesenteric (SMA), and inferior mesenteric arteries (IMA).
A 43-yr-old female was first referred to us in January 1994 when she was diagnosed as having
References