Geoepidemiology and clinical characteristics of neonatal lupus erythematosus: a systematic literature review of individual patients’ data.

Background/aim: Neonatal lupus erythematosus (NLE) is an autoimmune syndrome caused by transplacental transmission of maternal autoantibodies, often with devastating consequences. The objective of this systematic literature review was to analyze the demographic data, geoepidemiology, clinical, and serological characteristics associated with NLE.

Materials And Methods: We performed a systematic literature search of the Pubmed database covering the period from 1976 to August 2015, using the MeSH terms “neonatal lupus” or “congenital heart block”.