Abstract
Background:
Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is defined by two or more failed clinical pregnancies. Three to four percent of the couples with RPL have chromosomal aberrations (CA) in at least one partner. The parent’s structural chromosomal abnormalities may cause an unbalanced karyotype in the conceptus which could lead to implantation failure, early or late pregnancy loss, or delivery of a child with severe physical and/or mental disabilities.
Objective:
To compare live birth rates of couples with CA to couples with normal karyotypes and to investigate medical and obstetric characteristics and pregnancy outcomes of couples with CA and RPL who attend an RPL clinic at a tertiary hospital.
Methods:
A retrospective cohort study, including 349 patients with two or more consecutive pregnancy losses. The study group consisted of 52 patients with CA, and the control group consisted of 297 couples with normal karyotype. All patients were evaluated and treated in the RPL clinic at Soroka University Medical Center and had at least one subsequent spontaneous pregnancy.
Results:
The demographic and clinical characteristics were not found to be statistically different between the two groups. The group of carriers of CA had 28/52 (53.8%) live births in their index pregnancy vs. the normal 202/297 (68%) (P=0.067, CI 95%) in the control group. No statistically significant etiology was found between the study group and the control group. A statistically significant difference in live birth rates was found when comparing the total amount of pregnancies [index pregnancy (IP)+post index pregnancy (PIP)] between the study group and the control group (54.16% vs. 67.82%, respectively, P=0.0328).
Conclusion:
Patients with RPL and CA who have spontaneous pregnancies, have a good prognosis (63.4%) of a successful pregnancy with at least one of the pregnancies (index or post index) resulting in a live birth.
Outcome of Index Pregnancy in Women with Recurrent Pregnancy Loss (RPL)
