To evaluate the clinical relevance of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) in systemic sclerosis (SSc).
A systematic search of EMBASE and PubMed databases from January 1983 to July 2016 was carried out according to PRISMA guidelines whereas Peto׳s odds ratio (OR) for rare events was used for the meta-analysis.
The pooled prevalence of participants positive for IgG and IgM anticardiolipin (aCL) antibodies was higher in SSc than controls (12.8% vs 1.6% and 7.8% vs 0.6%; p < 0.0001 for both) as was that of IgG and IgM anti-beta-2-glycoprotein-I antibodies (aβ
A strong relationship exists between aCL and aβ