[Antiphospholipid syndrome in obstetrics]

The purpose of this study was to verify the frequency of antiphospholipid syndrome in pregnancy associated with fetal wastage and maternal hypertension. The antiphospholipid antibody syndrome is a clinical syndrome of venous and arterial thrombotic events, recurrent pregnancy loss, and thrombocytopenia associated with two autoantibodies: the lupus anticoagulant (LAC) and anticardiolipin antibody (ACA).

A group of 83 pregnant patients with recurrent fetal loss or with maternal hypertension for the presence of autoantibodies has been studied. None of the patients had systemic lupus erythematosus or any other autoimmune disease such as sclerodermia, myasthenia, autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura. The patients have been divided into two groups: a) 45 women with fetal wastage history; b) 38 women with maternal hypertension.

The prevalence of autoantibodies in the first group reaches 31.1% (14/45 patients). Two of these 14 patients (14.3%) had fetal loss (one with treatment and one without). 12 of this 14 patients (85.7%) had a normal delivery and all with treatment. Two treatment scheme were used in this study: one with aspirin and another with aspirin and prednisone. In the group of 45 patients there were 34 normal deliveries: 27 (79.5%) pregnancies were treated with aspirin and 7 (20.6%) were treated with aspirin and prednisone. There were 11 fetal loss and 9 (81.1%) in patients without treatment and 2 (18.2%) in treated pregnancies. The prevalence of autoantibodies in the second group reaches 21%.

In conclusions, it can be suggested that treatment strategies for the prevention of fetal loss in the antiphospholipid syndrome are warranted because treatment appears to alter fetal outcome favorably.