Antiphosphatidylethanolamine antibodies might not be an independent risk factor for further miscarriage in patients suffering recurrent pregnancy loss

The prevalence of antiphosphatidylethanolamine antibodies (aPEs) is higher in recurrent pregnancy loss patients than that in women with normal pregnancy. We conducted a cohort study to examine the predictive value of aPE for recurrent pregnancy loss and to determine its clinical significance. We examined plasma protein dependent (P+) and independent (P−) aPE IgG and IgM antibodies in 367 women with two or more unexplained consecutive pregnancy losses. We also examined conventional antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) such as β2-glycoprotein I-dependent anticardiolipin antibodies (β2GPI-dependent aCL), lupus anticoagulant with reference to the dilute activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) and the diluted Russell's viper venom time (RVVT). Subsequent pregnancy outcome without medication was examined, and patients with and without aPE were compared. Totals of 37 (10.1%), 14 (3.8%), 23 (6.3%), 6 (1.6%), 9 (2.5%), 10 (2.7%) and 50 (13.6%) of the 367 patients were, respectively, positive for P + aPE IgG, P − aPE IgG, P + aPE IgM, P − aPE IgM, β2GPI-dependent aCL, lupus anticoagulant by RVVT and LA by aPTT. The patients with aPE differed from patients with β2GPI-dependent aCL or lupus anticoagulant by RVVT. No difference in live birth rate was apparent between positive and negative aPE patients with no medication. The areas under the curves for each ROC curve for the four aPEs were 0.535, 0.612, 0.546 and 0.533, respectively, so there was no significant variation in diagnostic capacity. We did not obtain any evidence that aPE elevation is an independent risk factor to predict further miscarriage in recurrent pregnancy loss patients.