Pregnancies in women with systemic lupus erythematosus and antiphospholipid antibodies

Abstract

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has preponderance in women in their childbearing years; consequently pregnancy has always been an important issue of concern for the patient and the treating physician. Based upon numerous reports on successful pregnancy outcomes in the past decades, the initial advice against pregnancy in the 1950s has been replaced by a common understanding that women with SLE often have successful pregnancy outcomes, and clinicians therefore advise on pregnancy planning, including possible drug adjustments, timing and close surveillance. The recently published Predictors of Pregnancy Outcome: Biomarkers in Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (PROMISSE) study, so far the largest multicentre cohort study of pregnant women with underlying stable SLE, has given some important answers to long-discussed questions. Future studies on data collected from the PROMISSE cohort will hopefully identify serological biomarkers, possibly genes, and in addition, give valuable information about underlying disease mechanisms.

Keywords: Systemic lupus erythematosus; anticardiolipin antibodies; antiphospholipid syndrome; lupus anticoagulant; pregnancy.