@article{10902/32794,
year = {2022},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10902/32794},
abstract = {Background: Glucocorticoids have been suggested as a potential therapy in refractory obstetric antiphospholipid syndrome (oAPS). Our aims were to describe a cohort of patients with oAPS treated with low-dose glucocorticoids and to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the effects of additional glucocorticoids on the pregnancy outcomes in oAPS patients. Methods: Retrospective study that included 11 women diagnosed with primary antiphospholipid syndrome. The meta-analysis was conducted by fitting random effects models and was checked for heterogeneity. Results: All women had suffered from early pregnancy losses and two also had a history of fetal deaths. We studied 47 pregnancies that resulted in 32 abortions (68.1%) and 3 fetal deaths (6.4%). Twenty-six pregnancies were under treatment, mainly LDA and LMWH. Low-dose glucocorticoids were indicated in 13 pregnancies (always in association with LDA and LMWH). There was a decrease in pregnancy loss in those patients treated with LDA and LMWH. Treatment with glucocorticoids significantly increased the rate of successful pregnancy (38.5% abortions in treated vs 85.3% abortions in non-treated pregnancies; p=0.003). After multivariate GEE analysis, only glucocorticoids remained inversely associated with pregnancy loss [OR=0.157, (CI 0.025-0.968, p=0.046)]. The meta-analysis showed that glucocorticoids tended to improve the frequency of successful pregnancy [OR= 0.509 (0.252-1.028), p=0.06]. Three cases of gestational diabetes and one of preeclampsia were observed in our cohort. The meta-analysis, which mostly included studies using high-dose steroids, showed that glucocorticoids increased not only the frequency of preeclampsia and gestational diabetes, but also the rate of pre-term birth. Conclusions: The efficacy of low-dose glucocorticoids in addition to the standard therapy in patients with refractory oAPS should be confirmed in well-designed clinical trials. However, high doses of steroids significantly increase the frequency of maternal and fetal morbidities, making their use strongly},
organization = {Funding: This research was supported by a Next-Val grant from IDIVAL (NVAL 17/19). 
Acknowledgments: Spanish Society of Rheumatology for their contribution in manuscript language editing.},
publisher = {SAGE Publications},
publisher = {Lupus, 2022, 31(7), 808-819},
title = {Treatment with low-dose prednisone in refractory obstetric antiphospholipid syndrome: a retrospective cohort study and meta-analysis},
author = {Riancho Zarrabeitia, Leyre and Lopez-Marin, Laura and Muñoz Cacho, Pedro and López Hoyos, Marcos and Barrio, Rafael Del and Haya, Ana and Martínez Taboada, Víctor Manuel},
}