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Antiphospholipid syndrome in pregnancy

Rahman, A; (2016) Antiphospholipid syndrome in pregnancy. [Review]. Indian Journal of Rheumatology , 11 (6) S117-S121. 10.4103/0973-3698.194543. Green open access

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Abstract

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune condition, in which antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) cause clinical features including thrombosis, fetal loss, and preterm delivery. Studies in large numbers of patients with APS show that they suffer both early and late fetal loss as well as complications of pregnancy such as preeclampsia. The fetal loss in patients with APS is not caused primarily by thrombosis, but by a number of biological effects of aPL that affect implantation of the embryo. These factors are not yet understood fully but include effects on trophoblast cell viability and migration, inflammation at the fetal-maternal interface, and activation of complement. The established management of pregnancy in patients with known obstetric APS is to give daily low-dose oral aspirin plus daily subcutaneous heparin. This gives a live birth rate of over 70%. The trials that led to this form of management being adopted were small but overall do support the use of the heparin/aspirin combination over aspirin alone. There is no definite evidence supporting the use of heparin plus aspirin in patients who are aPL-positive, but who have never suffered any problems in pregnancy. However, patients taking long-term warfarin for thrombotic APS should have this changed to heparin during pregnancy.

Type: Article
Title: Antiphospholipid syndrome in pregnancy
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.4103/0973-3698.194543
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.4103/0973-3698.194543
Language: English
Additional information: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‑NonCommercial‑ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non‑commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
Keywords: Antibodies, antiphospholipid syndrome, heparin, pregnancy, trophoblast
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Medicine
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Medicine > Inflammation
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1549296
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