Abstract
Background
Prevalence of HCV in pregnancy is 0.1–3.6%. AASLD and IDSA now recommend HCV screening in pregnancy although CDC, USPSTF, or ACOG still do not—though HCV can be perinatally transmitted and carries associated complications for the mother and fetus. Our study objectives were to analyze prenatal HCV screening practices at a large regional healthcare system and the prevalence of HCV-associated maternal and fetal/neonatal outcomes.
Methods
We performed a nested propensity score (PS) case–control study of pregnant women who tested HCV Ab+ in a cross-sectional study of women presenting for prenatal care at a large regional healthcare system from January 17 to December 18. We collected retrospective EHR data, including state of residency, HCV Ab, RNA, care engagement, HCV risk factors, comorbidities, maternal and fetal/neonatal morbidity, and neonatal HCV testing (when available). Mixed and generalized linear models were used to examine differences in continuous and categorical variables, respectively, between cases and controls
Results
14,363 women were seen for prenatal care; 4,891 (34%) were HCV tested, 75 (1.5%) tested HCV Ab+. Demographic and comorbidity data are shown in Table 1. HCV Ab+ cases had more co-morbidities, including obesity, heart disease, opioid use, and behavioral health issues compared with the controls. HCV risk factors included IVDU (64%) and tattoos (24%) (Figure 1). Neither past/current pregnancy-related complications nor fetal or neonatal adverse events (Figure 2) were statistically significantly different except for cholestasis in HCV Ab+ cases (5.3 vs. 0%, P = 0.04).
Conclusion
Our study showed only one-third of pregnant women are currently HCV screened in our health system. Universal screening would likely increase the number of HCV-infected women identified. Early HCV detection, repeated testing, and behavioral health intervention of those at high-risk may decrease further horizontal and vertical transmission of HCV in pregnancy.
Disclosures
All authors: No reported disclosures.
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