Catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome

Catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome, also known as Asherson's syndrome, is a rare autoimmune disease in which widespread clotting inside blood vessels leads to failure of multiple organs. It is caused by antiphospholipid antibodies that target proteins associated with phospholipids in the body, activating endothelial cells, platelets, and immune cells and triggering a large inflammatory response together with widespread clotting. First described by Ronald Asherson in 1992, the syndrome produces small-vessel clotting damage, thromboses in multiple organs, and in some cases tissue death, and is regarded as an extreme, catastrophic variant of the broader antiphospholipid syndrome.