Association of fetal loss with recent parvovirus infection and other demographic prognostic risk factors

Abstract

A total of 206 pregnant women were prospectively enrolled to this case–control study, from which 71 and 65 women had 1st and 2nd trimester miscarriage, respectively. The remaining 70 women with uneventful pregnancy were the control group. The serological profile of parvo B19 infection was confirmed with ELISA. Electron microscopy was selectively conducted in the patients’ group. Recent infection rate in women with 1st and 2nd trimester miscarriage was 3.68% and 5.8%, respectively. Univariate analysis revealed significant association between miscarriage and ethnicity (p = 0.04), type of work (p = 0.019), children attending school (p = 0.012) and recent parvovirus B19 infection (p = 0.013). Pregnant women with recent infection had a two-fold higher risk (OR = 1.94) for miscarriage. The association between 1st and 2nd trimester miscarriage rates in the women with recent parvovirus B19 infection, was not significant (p = 0.29). Multivariate analysis showed that recent parvovirus B19 infection was higher in women with children at school (OR = 3.5, p = 0.036). Placental tissues and specific histological findings were only detectable in the patients group.

Keywords::

• 1st trimester fetal loss
• histological methods
• parvovirus B19
• 2nd trimester fetal loss
• serological methods

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our thanks to the technical team of the pathology department of Hippokration General Hospital, who have performed the histopathological evaluation of placentas and provided us with the pathology data and images.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.