Miscarriage is a spontaneous termination of pregnancy which occurs during the first months, recalls theHealth insurance. It affects around 15% of pregnancies and generally presents with vaginal bleeding and pain in the lower part of the abdomen.
A woman may experience this event several times during her life. We will then speak of repeated miscarriages, when the woman “under 40 years of age, pregnant with the same partner, has at least 3 consecutive spontaneous miscarriages before 14 weeks of amenorrhea”, defines Ameli.
But one medicine currently being analyzed could allow these women to “increase their chance of carrying the pregnancy to term by up to 87%”. Their study was published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology on September 26, 2024 and believes that it “reduces the risk of pregnancy-related complications”.
Up to 87% chance of carrying the pregnancy to term
The researchers identified the “anti-β2-glycoprotein” antibody as a risk factor for successive miscarriage. They then wanted to test a treatment based on aspirin and/or heparin, an anticoagulant, to see if it improved outcomes for those with this antibody.
Obstetrician Kenji Tanimura, from Kobe University, and his team recruited nearly 50 women who suffered from recurrent miscarriages. They analyzed their blood for two years to detect the antibodies in question. “If any of these women became pregnant during this time, their doctor would offer them these treatment options,” explains the press release.
Their results indicate that women who received the treatment were up to 87% more likely to carry their pregnancies to term than those who did not receive the treatment – in which sample 50% of women were able to carry their pregnancies to term.
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A treatment that significantly reduces the risk of complications
During their study, the obstetricians also found that for those who received the treatment with aspirin or heparin, pregnancy-related complications were considerably lower. In fact, this reduced the probability of complications from “50% to 6%”.
“The sample was rather small (39 women received the treatment and 8 did not), but the results clearly show thattreatment with low-dose aspirin or heparin is very effective in preventing miscarriage or complicationseven in women who have these new self-targeted antibodies,” notes Dr. Tanimura, in the press release.
An antibody potentially causing several health concerns
The recently discovered antibody identified by researchers as a risk factor for spontaneous termination of pregnancy would also be responsible for several conditions.
Thus, it would be involved in infertility and in recurrent implantation failures, but it would also be “a risk factor for arterial thrombosis in women with systemic rheumatic diseases”.
Dr Tanimura and his team therefore hope that the treatment will eventually also be tested in other studies and on a wider range of diseases.
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