Improvement of Cardiac Vegetations in Antiphospholipid Syndrome with Enoxaparin and Corticosteroids after Rivaroxaban Failure

Abstract EN

Cardiac disease is a well-known complication of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), with many patients presenting with valvular thickening or vegetations, referred to as Libman–Sacks endocarditis (LSE).

Because cases of APS with cardiac involvement are relatively rare, paucity of large clinical trials studying this complication has made management challenging.

In the absence of acute heart failure and embolic events, a medical approach is usually selected, consisting of anticoagulation and possibly corticosteroids when another underlying autoimmune disease is present.

However, the role of various anticoagulant classes and the duration of steroid therapy continue to be debated.

Here, we present a 45-year-old woman who developed two vegetations in the setting of secondary APS while taking rivaroxaban before experiencing marked improvement with the use of enoxaparin and steroids.