American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Original ResearchObstetricsThe impact of hydroxychloroquine treatment on pregnancy outcome in women with antiphospholipid antibodies
Section snippets
Methods
This was an observational, retrospective, single center cohort study. All the records of women who attended the Lupus & Antiphospholipid Pregnancy clinic from January 2008 to July 2014 were searched. All the pregnancies in women with persisting aPL were identified.
aPL positivity was defined according to the current classification criteria and confirmed at least 12 weeks apart1 in all the included women before the index pregnancy. Women with equivocal or unconfirmed aPL positivity were excluded
Results
Treatment with hydroxychloroquine was well tolerated, and no side-effect was reported. No patients suspended treatment with hydroxychloroquine during the follow-up period.
As indicated in Table 1, women who were treated with hydroxychloroquine had a significant higher prevalence of SLE (64.5% in group A vs 7.7% in group B; P < .001), which is consistent with the higher frequency of antinuclear antibodies and extractable nuclear antigens antibodies that were observed in group A (P < .001).
Comment
To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to provide clinical evidence from a large cohort that supports a beneficial effect of hydroxychloroquine on pregnancy outcome in women with aPL.
In our study, hydroxychloroquine was well tolerated, and no serious side-effects were observed.
The main serious effects that are associated with hydroxychloroquine exposure are very rare and involve cardiac and retinal toxicities.31 Cardiac toxicity remains controversial; in the largest prospective
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2022, Biomedicine and PharmacotherapyCitation Excerpt :Overall, the effects of HCQ on hCG production, cytotrophoblast fusion, autophagy, differentiation-related genes, and JAK2 signaling were milder than those of CQ. HCQ is commonly prescribed in pregnant women with systemic lupus erythematosus or antiphospholipid antibody syndrome [24,25]. Recently, several clinical trials have been underway to test whether HCQ could lower recurrent pregnancy loss and improve pregnancy outcomes [63–65].
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The authors report no conflict of interest.
Cite this article as: Sciascia S, Hunt BJ, Talavera-Garcia E, et al. The impact of hydroxychloroquine treatment on pregnancy outcome in women with antiphospholipid antibodies. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2016;214:273.e1-8.