title: Serological study of rubella in pregnancy: two years of experience in Palermo (1984-1986).
abstract: A serological survey was carried out by means of an ELISA capture-immunoassay for IgM and by means of the haemagglutino-inhibition method or ELISA for IgG antibodies on 715 women in fertile age and on 12 patients suffering from rubella or rubella-like syndrome. Fetal serum samples were obtained at fetoscopy from 4 pregnant women at different gestational age. The overall results show that although the high percentage (greater than 80.0%) of anti-rubella positive women in fertile age in our country, 18 out of 54 women in pregnancy, having had contacts with people affected by rubella or rubella-like syndrome, showed a seroconversion for rubella virus. The outcome of the pregnancy in these patients is known for 11 cases only: six women decided for abortion, four had a normal baby and one, mother of twins, bore an apparently healthy child the other one being dead 4 hrs after the delivery owing to fetal respiratory distress. Conclude this study some considerations on the necessity to emphasize the opportunity for a mass vaccination program and on the importance for more than one serological test to discriminate among different rubella-like syndromes.
authors.affiliation: Divisione di Ostetricia e Ginecologia, Ospedale V. Cervello, Palermo.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Spanò
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pecoraro
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Patti
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: D'Accardo
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Orlandi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis* / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D005332:Fetoscopy; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D012409:Rubella / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012410:Rubella Syndrome, Congenital / Q000175:diagnosis
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; C040901:rubella antibodies