Association of rheumatologic disease with preeclampsia

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether maternal rheumatologic disease is associated with an increased risk of adverse obstetric or neonatal outcomes.

Methods: Using an institutional database, we identified all women with diagnosed rheumatologic disease (n = 114) who delivered a baby at our institution during a 33-month period. We compared the incidence of adverse obstetric and neonatal outcomes among these women with the incidence among women without rheumatologic diseases (n = 18,534).

Results: Women with rheumatologic diseases were more likely to have preeclampsia than women without rheumatologic disease (8.8% versus 2.3%, P <.001) Women with rheumatologic diseases were also at increased risk of preterm delivery (15.2% versus 7.8%, P =.002) and small-for-gestational-age infants (8.0% versus 3.1%, P =.001) compared with women without rheumatologic disease.

Conclusion: The finding that women with rheumatologic diseases are at increased risk of adverse obstetric outcomes suggests a need for heightened clinical vigilance and further research into the common pathophysiologic correlates.

Level of evidence: II-2