The relationship between TORCH complex false positivity and obstetric outcome in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome

De Carolis S et al. – The data suggest that the presence of Cytomegalovirus (CMV) IgM false positivity could represent a novel prognostic factor for poor pregnancy outcome in antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) patients.

Methods

• Data from 54 pregnancies in women with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) were assessed in comparison with data from 222 healthy pregnant women as controls.
• Each woman in both groups was systematically screened for TORCH IgG and IgM during pre–conceptional evaluation and/or at the beginning of pregnancy.
• The assessment of IgG avidity was also evaluated in order to identify primary infection or false positivity.

Results

• A significant increase of CMV IgM false positivity in APS in comparison with controls was detected.
• A worse pregnancy outcome was observed among APS patients having CMV IgM false positivity in comparison with APS patients without false positivity; in particular a statistically significant lower neonatal birth weight and a lower neonatal birth weight percentile were observed.

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