Antiphospholipid antibodies (APLA) are associated with anti-phospholipid syndrome (APS), a thrombotic disorder, but they are also frequently detected in immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a bleeding disorder. To investigate possible differences of APLA between these two disorders, we assayed IgG and IgM APLA by ELISA in 21 patients with ITP and 33 with APS. The APLA reacting against two protein target antigens, beta(2)-glycoprotein 1 (beta2GP1) and FVII/VIIa, and four phospholipids [cardiolipin (CL), phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylserine (PS), and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE)] as well as lupus anticoagulant (LA) were analyzed. We made the following observations: (i) IgG and IgM antibodies to beta2GP1 and IgM antibodies to FVII/VIIa were more common in APS than ITP, P or =3 antigens) were more frequent in APS than ITP, P < 0.05; (iii) LA was frequently associated with APS but was absent in ITP; (iv) APLA is quite common in ITP: two-thirds were positive for at least one APLA. In summary, APLA are prevalent in ITP but their profile differs from APS. In APS, antibodies were predominantly against beta2GP1 and 80% had positive LA, while in ITP the APLA reacted most often with the phospholipids without LA. The difference in APLA may result in opposite clinical manifestations in two disorders.