Antinuclear and antiphospholipid autoantibodies in patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease

According to the Chapel Hill Consensus Conference, large peripheral arteries are only affected by giant cell vasculitis and, in rare cases, by polyarteritis nodosa.1,2 Vasculitis becomes apparent through involvement of typical organs (lung, kidney, skin) or raised C reactive protein (CRP) level or erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). Thus, a specific diagnostic effort to exclude vasculitis as an underlying disease in patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) may be unnecessary. On the other hand, there is increasing evidence that humoral immunity may have a role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.1,2,9 Antinuclear antibodies were reported in 70% of patients with severe coronary heart disease (CHD), compared with in only 17% in the control group.3 Thus, we prospectively studied the …