Abstract
BACKGROUND: Pregnancy is associated with various forms of thrombotic microangiopathy, including hemolytic uremic syndrome. A previous small French study suggested that pregnancy-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome was to be included in the spectrum of atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome linked to complement alternative pathway dysregulation.
DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: We sought to retrospectively analyze the presentation, outcome, and frequency of complement alternative pathway gene variants in a larger international (France, United Kingdom, Italy) cohort of patients with pregnancy-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome.
RESULTS: Eighty-seven patients with pregnancy-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome were included. Hemolytic uremic syndrome occurred mainly during the first pregnancy (58%) and in the postpartum period (76%). At diagnosis, 56 (71%) patients required dialysis. Fifty-six (78%) patients underwent plasma exchanges, 21 (41%) received plasma infusions, and four (5%) received eculizumab. During follow-up (mean duration of 7.2 years), 41 (53%) patients reached ESRD, 15 (19%) had CKD, and 18 (28%) patients experienced hemolytic uremic syndrome relapse. Twenty-four patients (27%) received a kidney transplant and a recurrence of hemolytic uremic syndrome occurred in 13 (54%) patients. Variants in complement genes were detected in 49 (56%) patients, mainly in the CFH (30%) and CFI genes (9%).
CONCLUSIONS: Pregnancy-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome nonrelated to pregnancy have the same severity at onset and during follow-up and the same frequency of complement gene variants.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1237-1247 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Clinical journal of the American Society of Nephrology : CJASN |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Aug 7 2017 |
Keywords
- Journal Article