Original ArticlesNeonatal lupus erythematosus: results of maternal corticosteroid therapy
Section snippets
Materials and methods
Since 1979, we screened sera from patients with symptoms of connective tissue diseases for precipitating autoantibodies against extractable nuclear antigens. Forty mothers who were positive for anti-Ro/SSA antibodies were included in this study. Twenty-eight women had been followed at our hospitals, and seven were referred for care after fetal bradycardia was diagnosed. In the other five cases (two infants with congenital heart block and three infants with cutaneous lupus lesions), serum
Results
Results of clinical and serologic studies as well as neonatal outcomes in anti-Ro/SSA-positive mothers are given in Table 1. Fourteen mothers were positive for both anti-Ro/SSA and La/SSB antibodies, and 26 mothers had only anti-Ro/SSA antibodies. As reported previously,13, 15 there was no specific antibody profile unique to mothers of children with neonatal lupus erythematosus compared with anti-Ro/SSA-positive mothers with asymptomatic children. However, mothers with only a low titer of
Discussion
Neonatal lupus erythematosus was originally described in children born to mothers with systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjögren’s syndrome, but recent studies have shown that in many mothers, the symptoms of connective tissue disease are absent or mild at the time of delivery of the affected infants.4, 15, 16 Permanent cardiac and transient cutaneous disease are two major manifestations of neonatal lupus erythematosus.17, 18 According to previous findings5, 17 as well as those of the present
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