Pregnancy outcomes in dermatomyositis and polymyositis patients.

Background: Currently, there are few studies that describe pregnancy in dermatomyositis/polymyositis patients, and they are largely limited to case reports or studies with few samples.

Objectives: Therefore, we describe the pregnancy in a large sample of patients with dermatomyositis/polymyositis and to analyze the outcomes in those who became pregnant during or after disease onset.

Methods: The present single-center study analyzed 98 female patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (60 dermatomyositis and 38 polymyositis patients).

Molecular epidemiology of rubella viruses involved in congenital rubella infections in São Paulo, Brazil, between 1996 and 2009.

Rubella virus (RV) infection during the early stages of pregnancy can lead to serious birth defects, known as congenital rubella syndrome (CRS). This retrospective study was conducted between 1996 and 2009 with surveillance specimens collected from patients suspected of congenital rubella infection (CRI) and CRS. The clinical samples (nine amminiotic fluid, eight urine, eight blood, one conception product, and one placenta) were sent for viral isolation and genotyping.

Rubella vaccination of unknowingly pregnant women: the São Paulo experience, 2001.

Background: Rubella vaccination is contraindicated during pregnancy. During mass immunization of women of childbearing age against rubella, women unknowingly pregnant may be vaccinated. To evaluate the effects of rubella vaccination during pregnancy, the Brazilian state of São Paulo conducted a follow-up study of pregnant women vaccinated during a rubella campaign in 2001.

Fetal cardiac troponin T as a marker of poor prognosis in nonimmune hydrops fetalis.

Objective: Severe fetal anemia and cardiac compromise are important causes of nonimmune hydrops fetalis, and fetal recovery also depends on the degree of fetal heart compromise. The aim of this study was to report the fetal cardiac troponin T (cTnT) levels in cases of nonimmune fetal hydrops.

Methods: Fetal cTnT was analyzed on 7 occasions in 5 cases of nonimmune fetal hydrops (twice in 2 cases).

Rubella in pregnancy: intrauterine transmission and perinatal outcome during a Brazilian epidemic.

Sixty pregnant women with clinical signs of rubella and specific rubella antibodies were studied between January 1999 and December 2002 in order to determine the intrauterine rubella transmission rate and the presence of the virus in amniotic fluid and fetal tissues by nested PCR. Thirty-three patients presented rubella before 12 weeks of gestation and 27 after 12 weeks. Gestational age at the time of acute rubella was determined on the basis of the date of last menstruation and the first trimester ultrasound scan.

Auditory brainstem response and otoacoustic emission assessment of hearing-impaired children of mothers who contracted rubella during pregnancy.

Conclusions: Based on the auditory brainstem response (ABR) results obtained in this study, the incidence of deafness in children whose mothers had rubella during pregnancy is high (29.5%), and deafness is profound in most cases (80%). Vaccinating women of childbearing age against rubella is essential to reduce the number of cases of childhood sensorineural hearing loss caused by gestational rubella.