title: The outcome of pregnancy in antinuclear antibody-positive women.
abstract: The significance of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) was studied in 51 ANA-positive women who had had a total of 170 pregnancies. 60 ANA-negative age- and parity-matched women with a total of 142 pregnancies served as controls. The perinatal mortality rate in the ANA-positive group was 18.6% (8/43), while there were no perinatal deaths in the ANA-negative control group. All the perinatal losses were stillbirths. The rate of spontaneous abortions was low in both groups, 2.0 vs. 3.3%, respectively. The ANA titer, complement-fixing activity and antigenic specificity did not correlate with the outcome of the pregnancy. Two infants of the ANA-positive women (3.9%) had a congenital atrioventricular heart block. In both cases the ANA was of the complement-fixing type.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kiuttu
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Hartikainen
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mäkitalo
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ruuska
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear / Q000097:blood*; D003176:Complement C3 / Q000378:metabolism; D003181:Complement C4 / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death / Q000276:immunology; D006327:Heart Block / Q000151:congenital; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000276:immunology*; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome
chemical_list: D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear; D003176:Complement C3; D003181:Complement C4