HISTOCOMPATIBILITY ANTIGEN STUDIES IN WOMEN WITH RECURRENT MISCARRIAGES AND MULLERIAN UTERINE ANOMALIES

Objective. To determine whether the HLA alleles DR1, DR3, DR4 and DR10 which have been suggested to be risk markers for unexplained recurren t miscarriages also play a part in women with recurrent miscarriages w ith Mullerian uterine fusion anomalies. Study design. HLA-DR typing wa s undertaken in 28 women with recurrent miscarriage who had been surgi cally treated for Mullerian anomalies and in 360 controls. In the stud y group, outcome of pregnancies after surgery was correlated to the re sults of the HLA typing. Results. In the study group, 61% were positiv e fur HLA-DR1, -DR3, -DR3 or -DR10 compared with 65% of the controls ( not significantly different). Among patients positive for these HLA ri sk markers, 64% of the pregnancies after surgery miscarried compared w ith 13% in those negative (P<0.005, RR for miscarriage=3.8, 95% CI=1.3 -18.0) Conclusion,The proposed risk HLA markers for unexplained recurr ent miscarriage also seem to display a negative impact on pregnancy ou tcome in patients with recurrent miscarriages with Mullerian uterine a nomalies. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.