Antinuclear autoantibodies and pregnancy outcome in women with unexplained recurrent miscarriage.

PROBLEM: To investigate whether antinuclear autoantibodies (ANA) could be related to the outcome of the successive pregnancy in women with unexplained recurrent miscarriage (uRM).

METHODS: Circulating ANA were measured by indirect immunofluorescence in 86 women with uRM before pregnancy, repeated in the first trimester of the successive gestation and correlated with pregnancy outcome.

RESULTS: Forty-one women were ANA- and 45 were ANA+ before pregnancy. No relation was found between pre-pregnancy ANA status and the outcome of the successive pregnancy. However, when these women were monitored at 7th week during their pregnancy for ANA, of the 22 ANA+ women who remained ANA+ seven miscarriages (31.8%) were observed, whereas all of the 23 ANA+ women who became ANA- had pregnancies ongoing beyond the 20th week without miscarriage.

CONCLUSIONS: ANA status could have a role in uRM. Disappearance of ANA in early pregnancy could have a favorable prognostic value in the successive pregnancy.