New Benefits of Hydroxychloroquine in Pregnant Women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Retrospective Study in a Tertiary Centre

 

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Abstract

Objective To determine pregnancy outcomes in women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who were treated with hydroxychloroquine in a tertiary center.

Methods A retrospective study involving pregnant women with SLE who had antenatal follow-up and delivery in between 1 January 2007 and 1 January 2017. All participants were retrospectively enrolled and categorized into two groups based on hydroxychloroquine treatment during pregnancy.

Results There were 82 pregnancies included with 47 (57.3%) in the hydroxychloroquine group and 35 (42.7%) in the non-hydroxychloroquine group. Amongst hydroxychloroquine users, there were significantly more pregnancies with musculoskeletal involvement (p = 0.03), heavier mean neonatal birthweight (p = 0.02), and prolonged duration of pregnancy (p = 0.001). In non-hydroxychloroquine patients, there were significantly more recurrent miscarriages (p = 0.003), incidence of hypertension (p = 0.01) and gestational diabetes mellitus (p = 0.01) and concurrent medical illness (p = 0.005). Hydroxychloroquine use during pregnancy was protective against hypertension (p = 0.001), and the gestational age at delivery had significant effect on the neonatal birthweight (p = 0.001). However, duration of the disease had a significant negative effect on the neonatal birthweight (p = 0.016).

Conclusion Hydroxychloroquine enhanced better neonatal outcomes and reduced adverse pregnancy outcomes and antenatal complications such as hypertension and diabetes.

Contributions

Rahman R. A. has initiated the idea of the research, performed data analysis and the writing of the manuscript. Tun K. M. has performed data collection, data analysis and the writing of the manuscript. Both Said M. S. M. and Mustafar R. have assisted in the writing of the manuscript. Atan I. K. has performed the data analysis and assisted in the writing of the manuscript. Zainuddin A. A. has assisted in the writing of the manuscript.

Publication History

Received: 24 February 2020

Accepted: 29 June 2020

Article published online:
30 November 2020

© 2020. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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