Summary

• Thrombosis or pregnancy morbidity and associated persistently elevated antiphospholipid antibodies are key diagnostic criteria.
• Predisposes to arterial and microvascular thrombosis, as well as venous thromboembolism, and can affect any vessel in the body.
• Main treatment goals are management of acute thrombosis and prevention of thrombosis recurrence and pregnancy morbidity.
• Consideration should also be given to the presence of co-existent autoimmune disease in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome.
• Catastrophic disease, which presents as multiorgan failure, occurs in <1% of patients.
• High index of suspicion for antiphospholipid syndrome in any young patient (<50 years) presenting with arterial thrombosis in any vessel.
• Thrombosis tends to recur in the same vascular bed; that is, patients presenting with stroke have a high risk of recurrent stroke.