The International Society on Haemostasis and Thrombosis (ISTH) and the British Committee for Standards in Haematology (BCSH) have recently updated their lupus anticoagulant (LA) detection guidelines. The Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) subsequently will publish its first LA guideline. General agreement exists on issues such as sample preparation, the use of dilute Russell viper venom time (dRVVT) in diagnostic repertoires, the use of normalized ratios, calculations to demonstrate phospholipid dependence, calculations to demonstrate inhibition, and interpretive reporting. The ISTH recommendation to employ only dRVVT and activated partial thromboplastin time is not mirrored in the BCSH and CLSI documents. The potential for false negatives in mixing tests is acknowledged by all panels, yet they remain mandated by ISTH as there are occasions when they are crucial to diagnostic accuracy. BCSH indicates that a negative mixing test need not exclude the presence of a LA, and CLSI reprioritizes test order to screen-confirm-mix, the latter being considered unnecessary in specific circumstances. Opinions in the guidelines differ on setting cutoff levels (i.e., 97.5th vs. 99th percentile for normally distributed data). All guidelines cover testing of anticoagulated patients, more detail being given by BCSH and CLSI, who suggest that Taipan snake venom time is a useful adjunct test in patients receiving vitamin K antagonists. Although complete agreement is not apparent, the guidelines represent significant moves toward engendering common practices.

Summary: The antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is the association of thrombosis and recurrent pregnancy loss and/or pregnancy morbidity with persistent antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL). Increased complement activation has been implicated in the pathogenesis of APS in animal models. It was our objective to evaluate complement activation in patients with aPL or primary antiphospholipid syndrome (PAPS). We measured complement activation products, fragments Bb and C3a–desArg by ELISA in 186 aPL/PAPS patients and 30 healthy controls. All patients with aPL had significantly increased levels of complement activation products. Fragment Bb levels (mean, 95% CI); (thrombotic APS 0.54 units/ml, 0.31–0.83, obstetric APS 0.60 units/ml,0.39–1.02, isolated aPL 0.48 units/ml, 0.29–0.85, overall 0.39 units/ml, 0.33–0.47) and C3a–desArg levels (mean, 95% CI): (thrombotic APS 261 ng/ml, 219–311, obstetric APS 308 ng/ml, 243–391, isolated aPL 258 ng/ml, 193–337, overall 225 ng/ml, 202–251) were significantly higher compared to controls (fragment Bb 0.06 units/ml, 0.03–0.11, C3a–desArg 69 ng/ml, 50–92). There were correlations between Fragment Bb and C3a–desArg levels in all patients with aPL. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis showed increased fragment Bb and C3a–desArg levels had strong associations with the presence of persistent lupus anticoagulant (area under ROC: Bb 0.89, and C3a–desArg 0.90), dual and triple aPL positivity (Bb 0.71–0.82, C3a–desArg 0.71–0.80) but not with high titre anti-cardiolipin antibodies (Bb 0.62, C3a–desArg 0.65), or anti β2-glycoprotein 1 antibodies (Bb 0.66, C3a–desArg 0.67). Complement activation is present in all patient groups within this large cohort of patients aPL. This suggests it may have a major role in the pathogenesis of APS and merits further study.