Repeated pregnancies in patients with primary membranous glomerulonephritis

This retrospective study was carried out in patients with membranous glomerulonephritis (MGN) and repeated pregnancies, the aim being to see how one influences the other. Patients with two or more pregnancies after MGN were included in the study. Nine patients underwent 51 pregnancies (range 2-12, mean 5.6) and 30 were post-MGN (range 2-5, mean 3.2). Their ages were 27-44 (32 +/- 5.7) years. The duration of follow-up was 2-10 (5.6 +/- 2.5) years. The pregnancy outcome, i.e., number of full-term deliveries (FT), spontaneous abortion, preterm deliveries (PT), perinatal mortality (PM), low-birth-weight babies (LBW) and cesarean section (CS), was noted. In the pre-MGN group (n = 21), there were 20 (95.2%) live births and 1 (4.7%) abortion; none had PT, PM, LBW or CS. In the post-MGN group (n = 30), there were 27 (90%) live births, 2 (6.6%) PT, 1 (3.3%) abortion, 1 (3.3%) PM, 3 (10.0%) LBW babies and 3 (10.3%) CS. However, in comparison, there was no statistically significant difference in the pregnancy outcome between the two groups (p > 0.05 in all). Comparing the incidence of hypertension, proteinuria and serum creatinine levels between the first and the last post-MGN pregnancies, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups. Only 1 patient developed renal insufficiency (serum creatinine 220 micromol/l) after undergoing 5 pregnancies and follow-up of 6 years. In conclusion, the outcome of repeated pregnancies in patients with MGN is good with 90% live births. Repeated pregnancies do not influence the course of MGN.