PURPOSE: to verify if there is any difference in the number of miscarriages and newborns with low weight in patients with scleroderma (SSc) when compared with women without the disease, between the two clinical variants of the disease and when the expression of SSc occurred before or after the gestation. METHODS: twenty-six patients were analyzed regarding the number of pregnancies, miscarriages, sex, and birth weight of the children, studying the clinical variant of the disease and the temporal relationship between diagnosis and gestation. The patients had not used either medications that could interfere in gestation or had any other disease that could do it. For control, twenty-six healthy women, without diseases that might alter the gestation, of the same ages and socioeconomic status were studied. For the statistical analysis study, tables of frequency, tables of contingency, and Fisher, chi2 and Mann-Whitney tests were used. Statistical significance was considered when p<0.05. RESULTS: among the patients with SSc, there were 96 gestations with 13.5% (n=13) of miscarriages. In the control group, there were 94 gestations with 9.6% (n=9) of miscarriages. There were no differences in the number of newborns with low weight between the two groups (cases, n=8 and controls, n=6, with p=0.54), nor in the number of miscarriages (p=0.46). However, the number of newborn babies with low weight was significantly higher among the cases with the diffuse disease (diffuse form, n=4 and limited, n=4, with p=0.04) and among patients that became pregnant after the diagnosis of SSc (37.5% in women known to be sick and 6.7% in women who became pregnant before getting ill, with p=0.03). The number of male newborns was higher in the women with SSc (p=0.002). CONCLUSIONS: the women with SSc showed a higher number of low-weight newborns in the group with diffuse disease and when pregnancy occurred after the clinical diagnosis of the disease.
Scleroderma, diffuse; Abortion; Infant, low birth weight
