Pregnant women with lupus – a chronic autoimmune disease – are at greater risk of developing preeclampsia.
Pregnancy and lupus are not an ideal duo. Women with this chronic autoimmune disease are at higher risk for complications during gestation. Their organism is directly affected, but so is the fetus. This is what a study published in Arthritis Care & Research and conducted with 13,600 Swedish women.
The volunteers were all going through their first pregnancies. But not all of them had signs of systemic lupus erythematosus yet. For some, the diagnosis arrived up to 5 years after giving birth. And yet, even before a formal diagnosis, the deleterious effect of this inflammatory disease can be observed.
Newborns also at risk
In the general population, 5% of women suffer from preeclampsia – or high blood pressure during pregnancy. 16% of patients with lupus are affected. Those who have developed symptoms within two years of giving birth are at greater risk of developing this complication. Serious infections follow the same pattern, although the risk is slightly lower.
Children are also affected by whether or not the mother has lupus. Newborns are less healthy and tend to get more infections in their first year.
“Our results suggest that immunologic activity, like autoantibodies, contribute to these complications even in the absence of a formal diagnosis of lupus,” says Dr. Julia Simard, lead author of the study. We are now trying to understand why this can affect the time to diagnosis of lupus but also what we can learn about complications like preeclampsia or preterm birth in general. “
#Pregnancy : + risk of preeclampsia in pregnant women with #Lupus https://t.co/Z2bm70lOKC pic.twitter.com/hBfSHQwnUm
– Pourquoidocteur (@Pourquoidocteur) February 3, 2016
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