Cutaneous Neonatal Lupus Erythematosus and Risk for Heart Block in Subsequent Pregnancy

Exposure to maternal anti-Ro/SS-A autoantibodies increases the risk for fetal or neonatal heart block.

Cutaneous disease and heart block are the major manifestations associated with passive transfer of maternal autoantibodies, particularly anti-Ro/SS-A. The skin manifestations are transient, whereas the cardiac disease is usually irreversible and can cause early cardiac death. Therefore, it is important to determine the risk to subsequent pregnancies after birth of a baby with cutaneous neonatal lupus (NL).

Researchers identified 58 mothers of a child with cutaneous NL and one or more subsequent pregnancies. Of 77 such pregnancies, 49% involved some manifestation of neonatal lupus: 14 pregnancies (18.2%) were complicated by cardiac NL, 23 (29.9%) by cutaneous NL, and 1 (1.3%) by hematologic/hepatic NL. In previous studies, children exposed to…

Reviewing Author

Jeffrey P. Callen, MD

Disclosures

Consultant / Advisory board XOMA; Eli Lilly; Celgene

Equity Various trust accounts

Editorial boards JAMA Dermatology; UpToDate

Leadership positions in professional societies Association of Professors of Dermatology (President-Elect)