Researchers examined pregnant women from the U.S. or Canada with or without RA. They followed up with the women in three to four telephone interviews. They also used data abstracted from medical records and follow-up data from the pediatrician for the infant through 1 year of age. Between 2004 and 2016, 1,184 women who gave birth were included in the study.
Of study participants, 252 with RA were treated with a biologic in pregnancy, 463 with RA were not treated with a biologic and 469 had no chronic diseases.
Serious/opportunistic infections in the infant were defined as an infection requiring hospitalization or any of the following: neonatal sepsis, invasive fungal infection, x-ray proven pneumonia, meningitis, bacteremia, pneumocystis, septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, tuberculosis, herpes, listeria, legionella, mycobacteria, systemic cytomegalovirus or abscess.
The study shows serious or opportunistic infections were reported in 2.8 percent of infants born to women with RA who were treated with a biologic. Around 3.9 percent of infants born to women with RA not treated with a biologic and 2.6 percent of infants whose mothers did not have a chronic disease experienced serious or opportunistic infections.
Thus, researchers found “no evidence of increased risk of serious/opportunistic infections in infants in this sample.”
The meeting took place in San Diego, from Nov. 3 to Nov. 8.
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