Original ArticlesIncidence and spectrum of neonatal lupus erythematosus: A prospective study of infants born to mothers with anti-Ro autoantibodies☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Materials and methods
The study group consisted of 128 infants born in two different centers (Toronto, Canada, and Milano, Italy) to mothers who were positive for anti-Ro with or without anti-La antibodies at the time of pregnancy. All mothers were contacted during pregnancy. Both hospitals are tertiary referral centers for NLE, and the study group was composed of patients born during the periods 1987 to 2000 (Toronto) and 1996 to 2000 (Milano). Mothers were referred, and their children subsequently enrolled in this
Results
There were 128 live births and 124 pregnancies. Only 10 of the 128 babies (7.8%) were born at a gestational age of <36 weeks. The Figure shows the incidence of each of the individual manifestations of NLE.
Complete congenital heart block was detected in only two of the 128 births (1.6%). Both of these infants with CCHB were born to mothers who had previously
Discussion
Autoimmune diseases frequently occur in women during their childbearing age and may affect the developing fetus and the infant. NLE is a disease of the developing fetus and neonate which is associated with maternal anti-Ro, anti-La, and, less frequently, anti-U1RNP antibodies. The clinical syndrome consists of cardiac abnormalities, most commonly CCHB; cutaneous manifestations; abnormalities of liver function; and hematologic abnormalities. NLE has been reported to occur in approximately 1% to
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge Prof Pierluigi Meroni for referral of several mothers in this study, performance of laboratory testing, and continuous support and discussions.
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Cited by (0)
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Supported in part by a grant from the March of Dimes (to Drs Silverman and Hornberger).
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Reprint requests: Rolando Cimaz, MD, Pediatric Department, ICP, Via Commenda 9, 20122 Milano, Italy. E-mail: [email protected] .