Clinical study
Lupus pregnancy: Case-control prospective study demonstrating absence of lupus exacerbation during or after pregnancy

https://doi.org/10.1016/0002-9343(84)90538-2Get rights and content

Abstract

To assess whether pregnancy is associated wtih exacerbation of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a variety of clinical markers of disease activity in 28 pregnant patients with SLE (33 pregnancies) were compared with the same markers in age-, race-, organ system-, and disease severity-matched nonpregnant women with SLE. Both groups were followed up for periods of up to one year after delivery. Eight patients elected abortion for nonmedical reasons. In all patient groups, there were no differences between pregnant and nonpregnant patient groups in frequency of any disease activity marker studied including therapy. However, new proteinuria occurred in four pregnant patients compared with one nonpregnant patient, and thrombocytopenia attributable to SLE occurred in five pregnant patients and one nonpregnant patient. Renal disease, when it occurred, more closely resembled pregnancy-induced hypertension than lupus nephritis. It is concluded that pregnancy complications are frequent, but the assertion that pregnancy causes exacerbation of SLE remains unproved.

References (25)

  • RB Zurier et al.

    Systemic lupus erythematosus: management during pregnancy

    Obstet Gynecol

    (1978)
  • CR Abramowsky et al.

    Decidual vasculopathy of the placenta in lupus erythematosus

    N Engl J Med

    (1980)
  • Cited by (231)

    • Pregnancy in systemic lupus erythematosus

      2023, Best Practice and Research: Clinical Rheumatology
    • Pregnancy in women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)

      2016, European Journal of Internal Medicine
    • Pregnancy and Lupus Nephritis

      2015, Seminars in Nephrology
    View all citing articles on Scopus

    This work was supported in part by a grant from the SLE Foundation, Inc., New York.

    1

    From the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the New York Hospital, and the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York.

    View full text