A successful birth of severe secondary recurrent miscarriage case after a decline of phosphatidylserine-dependent anti-prothrombin antibody by intravenous immunoglobulin administration

Mika Kanaya, Kunihiko Nagasawa, Tsuyoshi Baba, Shinichi Ishioka, Hideto Yamada, Toshiaki Endo, Tsuyoshi Saito

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, Sapporo Medical University, Sapporo, Japan.
Mika Ladies Clinic, Sapporo, Japan.

DOI: 10.4236/ojog.2012.22030                

Abstract

A 33 years old woman was referred to our hospital since her sixth pregnancy had been revealed. In fact, at 19 years of age she had diagnosed as having systemic lupus erythematosus without organ failure. In addition, she had a past history of uncontrollable severe pregnancy-induced hypertension occurred during the second pregnancy, resulting in extremely premature delivery and following postpartum HELLP syndrome. It was so severe that we employed administration of dexamethasone and plasma exchange to ameliorate a life-threatening situation. In the course of her recovery it was revealed that she had been complicated with antiphospholipid antibodies, and at the same time we observed that phosphatidylserine-dependent anti-prothrombin antibody IgG levels were declining as her condition was getting better. There-after, she became pregnant three times, but all pregnancies ended in miscarriage despite administration of prednisolone and anticoagulant therapy. Therefore, we realized that her recurrent miscarriages could not be prevented with generally acceptable therapies, so we tried intravenous immunoglobulin shortly after fetal heart beats were detected. In fact, her sixth pregnancy was going well, but we had to terminate it at the 35th week of gestation due to the onset of HELLP syndrome-like condition. However, she could achieve an almost intact pregnancy outcome without neonatal complications or persistently worsening postpartum HELLP syndrome-like condition. Considering the etiologic relation overlapping between systemic lupus erythematosus, antiphospholipid syndrome and recurrent miscarriage, intravenous immunoglobulin can be one of the treatment options for severe secondary recurrent miscarriage, although the evidence of the treatment is always certain. In addition, a decline of phosphatidylserine-dependent anti-prothrombin antibody IgG levels we observed in this case may represent its therapeutic immunomodulatory effects.

Keywords

Antiphospholipid Antibody; Antiphospholipid Syndrome; Intravenous Immunoglobulin; Recurrent Miscarriage; Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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