Description
In 1952 Conley and Hartmann described inhibitors of blood coagulation in two patients with SLE who both had a biological false positive test for syphilis.1 These coagulation inhibitors are now known to be antibodies that interfere with phospholipid dependent coagulation tests in vitro. Antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) detected in this manner, that is by their ability to prolong coagulation tests, became known as lupus anticoagulants (LA) a term originally coined by Feinstein and Rapaport in 1972.2 This nomenclature has become firmly established despite its misleading nature and indeed the occurrence of thrombotic complications in patients with the LA had already been made nine years previously.3 A solid phase radioimmunoassay that utilised cardiolipin as the antigen, followed shortly by a microtitre solid phase ELISA were developed in the early 1980s and became the standard method to detect anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL). Thus aPL were detected as either LA or aCL by two distinct methodologies. Whether these antibodies were distinct, related, or identical was a matter of debate throughout the 1980s.
