In reply
We appreciate Drs Pechlaner and Wiedermann's interest in our article1 as well as their provocative clinical questions. Our work focused on establishing the impact of APS in the natural history of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Thus we did not analyze the utility of aPL assay in predicting an adverse outcome before the development of APS, although this would be certainly relevant for clinicians looking after patients with lupus.