The Effects of Gestational Alloimmune Liver Disease on Fetal and Infant Morbidity and Mortality

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate pregnancy outcomes in pedigrees of neonatal hemochromatosis to determine the spectrum of gestational alloimmune liver disease (GALD) in a large cohort.

Study design: We prospectively collected data from women with a prior offspring with proven neonatal hemochromatosis between 1997 and 2015 and analyzed pregnancy outcomes.

Results: The pedigrees from 150 women included 350 gestations with outcomes potentially related to GALD. There were 105 live-born infants without liver disease, 157 live-born infants with liver failure, and 88 fetal losses. Fetal loss occurred in 25% of total gestations. Ninety-seven pedigrees contained a single affected offspring, whereas 53 contained multiple affected offspring. Analysis of these 53 pedigrees yielded a per-pregnancy repeat occurrence rate of 95%. Notably, the first poor outcome occurred in the first pregnancy in 60% of pedigrees. Outcomes of the 157 live-born infants with liver failure were poor: 18% survived, 82% died. Of the 134 live-born infants with treatment data, 20 received intravenous immunoglobulin with or without double-volume exchange transfusion of which 9 (45%) survived; 14 infants (10%) received a liver transplant of which 6 (43%) survived.

Conclusions: GALD is a significant cause of both fetal loss and neonatal mortality with a high rate of disease recurrence in untreated pregnancies at risk. Poor outcomes related to GALD commonly occur in the first gestation, necessitating a high index of suspicion to diagnose this disorder at first presentation.

Keywords: neonatal hemochromatosis; neonatal liver failure.