Lessons from the “Euro-Phospholipid” project

The “Euro-Phospholipid” project started in 1999 with a multicentre, consecutive and prospective design. A total cohort of 1000 patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), derived from 13 countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and United Kingdom), has been followed since then by a European consortium that was created as part of the network promoted by the “European Forum on Antiphospholipid Antibodies”, a study group devoted to the development of multicentre projects with large populations of APS patients. This project allowed the identification of the prevalence and characteristics of the main clinical and immunological manifestations at the onset and during the evolution of APS and demonstrated that it is possible to recognize more homogeneous subsets of clinical significance.