Outcome of pregnancy in women with hereditary thrombophilia

Objectives: The aims of this study are to review the outcome of pregnancy i n women with thrombophilia, and investigate the possible beneficial effect of heparin therapy in these women. Methods: We reviewed the hospital record s of 126 women who were referred to the high-risk obstetrical hematology cl inic between June 1996 and December 1999. The placental histology and outco me of 39 pregnancies in 24 women with hereditary thrombophilia were studied , and pregnancies which were treated with heparin were compared with those without treatment. Results: An adverse pregnancy outcome occurred in 54% of the pregnancies. All seven miscarriages (18%) occurred in pregnancies that were not treated with heparin. However, heparin treatment did not prevent the development of obstetric complications in later pregnancies (odds ratio = 0.955, 95% C.I. = 0.255-3.577, Fisher's exact test). Excluding miscarria ges, 28% of the placentas had thrombotic lesions, and the pregnancies with placental thrombotic lesions were more likely to have complications than th ose pregnancies without placental abnormalities (P=0.023, C.I. = 1.257-5.19 7, Fisher's exact test). Conclusions: Pregnancy complications in cases of h ereditary thrombophilia may be related to placental abnormalities. Heparin therapy is likely to be useful in preventing miscarriage in cases of heredi tary thrombophilia. (C) 2001 International Federation of Gynecology and Obs tetrics. All rights reserved.