Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disease that often affects females of childbearing age. The pregnancy may exacerbate SLE flare and lupus nephritis. Moreover, it may complicate the pregnancy by premature labour, infection, hematologic complications, preeclampsia and even maternal death.

Methods: It was a prospective observational study. We had included 100 pregnant women with diagnosed SLE as defined by American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria revised in 1997, who attended Rheumatology and Obstetrics Clinic of IPGME&R, Kolkata from 2002 to 2012. We had randomly selected another 100 age-matched non lupus women as controls. The medical management of all these patients were done by rheumatologists. The pregnancy outcomes like live births including term and preterm births, pregnancy loss including miscarriages, still-births and neonatal deaths, as well as gestational age at birth in weeks, infant birth weight, delivery mode, lupus flare, oligohydramnios, preterm premature rupture of membrane, IUGR, and pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH), low Apgar score, and congenital anomaly were noted.

Results: Our study comprised of 100 pregnant women with SLE. As in the table 1, the mean age of the SLE women was 25.4 ± 3.495 years versus 24.92 ± 3.440 years in control group (p>0.05). Duration of Marriage was 4.6 ± 2.933 years in SLE patients versus 4.1 ± 3.816 years in control group (p>0.05).  Duration of gestation was significantly lower in SLE women 28.30 ± 9.080 weeks versus 36.18 ± 3.088 weeks in control groups (p< 0.001). There was significantly low fetal birth weight of SLE mothers 2186.3 ± 315.05 grams versus 2751.7 ± 430.34 grams (p< 0.001) in healthy mothers.

Conclusion: Pregnancy in women with SLE is a high-risk condition. In spite of considerable improvement in success rates, high maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality remain a major concern.

Keywords: SLE, Pregnancy, Childbirth

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