Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jul;107(1):122-128.
doi: 10.1111/ejh.13627. Epub 2021 May 4.

The management, outcome, and postpartum disease course of 41 pregnancies in 20 women with polycythemia vera

Kai Wille  1 , Johannes Bernhardt  1 , Parvis Sadjadian  1 , Tatjana Becker  1 , Vera Kolatzki  1 , Karlo Huenerbein  1 , Martin Griesshammer  1
Affiliations

The management, outcome, and postpartum disease course of 41 pregnancies in 20 women with polycythemia vera

Kai Wille et al. Eur J Haematol. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

Objectives: Pregnancies in women with polycythemia vera (PV) are associated with an increased risk of PV-related maternal complications and often result in miscarriage. Recommendations for the management of PV pregnancies are mainly based on studies with a small number of patients. A correlation between pregnancy outcome and postpartum course has been reported for essential thrombocythemia, but corresponding data for PV are lacking so far.

Methods: In 41 PV pregnancies, the pregnancy outcome, the use of PV-specific therapies (ie, acetylsalicylic acid, low-molecular weight heparin and/or interferon-alpha), and the postpartum PV course were investigated.

Results: A live birth rate of 51.2% (21/41 pregnancies) was observed. 43.9% of pregnancies ended in spontaneous abortion and 4.9% in stillbirth. A significantly increased live birth rate occurred in pregnancies with PV-specific therapies compared to standard antenatal care (69.0% vs. 8.3%; P < .0019). The use of PV-specific therapy significantly increased the number of maternal hemorrhages (P = .021) without increasing the risk of fetal complications. During the median postpartum follow-up period of 1.2 years (range 0.1-13.7), complicated postpartum PV occurred significantly more often after miscarriages (P = .035).

Conclusions: According to our analysis, PV-specific therapy improved the live birth rate. Significantly more complicated postpartum PV courses were observed after miscarriages.

Keywords: PV-specific therapy; live birth rate; polycythemia vera; postpartum PV course; pregnancies.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Robinson S, Bewley S, Hunt BJ, Radia DH, Harrison CN. The management and outcome of 18 pregnancies in women with polycythemia vera. Haematologica. 2005;90:1477-1483.
    1. Bertozzi I, Rumi E, Cavalloni C, Cazzola M, Fabris F, Randi ML. Pregnancy outcome and management of 25 pregnancies in women with polycythemia vera. Am J Hematol. 2018;93:E234-E235. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajh.25210
    1. McNally RJ, Roman E, Cartwright RA. Leukemias and lymphomas: time trends in the UK, 1984-93. Cancer Causes Control. 1999;10:35-42. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1008859730818
    1. Alimam S, Bewley S, Chappell LC, et al. Pregnancy outcomes in myeloproliferative neoplasms: UK prospective cohort study. Br J Haematol. 2016;175:31-36. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjh.14289
    1. Maze D, Kazi S, Gupta V, et al. Association of treatments for myeloproliferative neoplasms during pregnancy with birth rates and maternal outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2:e1912666. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.12666

Substances

LinkOut - more resources