MATERIALS AND METHODS

Antiphospholipid antibodies are a group of heterogenous auto antibodies directed against phospholipid bound proteins. In 1952, Conley and Harlmann first described circulating antico-agulants in patients with systemic lupus erythe-matosus (SLE) (1). Subsequently in 1972, Feinstein and Rapaport (2) introduced the term lupus anticoagulant (LA) for some of these anti-bodies that inhibit phospholipid-dependent co-agulation reactions in vitro, thereby prolonging the activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT). Since then, LA has been detected in patients with SLE, malignancies, drugs, infection, and also in some otherwise healthy individuals (3–6). Clinical importance of LA is due to its association with ar-terial or venous thrombosis and recurrent abor-tion. Rarely patients with LA suffer from bleeding (7). Because the data on bleeding in LA are limit-ed, a retrospective study on the clinicohematolog-ic features of 25 LA positive Indian patients was carried out to determine their relative frequency of bleeding and identify possible causes.