Manal Alsaif1, Kamal Dabelah1, Robin Featherstone2, Joan L Robinson3. 1. Department of Pediatrics, King Abdulaziz Hospital, Ministry of National Guard Hospital, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. 2. Alberta Research Centre for Health Evidence, Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Alberta SPOR SUPPORT Unit Knowledge Translation Platform, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. 3. Stollery Children's Hospital and University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Electronic address: jr3@ualberta.ca.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The aim was to establish the incidence of adverse outcomes with brucellosis infection during pregnancy. METHODS: Ovid Medline (1946-), Ovid Embase (1974-), and Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) (1900-), the World Health Organization website and Google were searched September 27, 2017 for (i) outcomes with brucellosis diagnosed during pregnancy and (ii) studies with retrospective diagnosis of maternal brucellosis following adverse pregnancy outcomes. RESULTS: Sixty studies met inclusion criteria. In 65 pregnancies from 28 case reports and 9 small case series (<10 women), there were 20 spontaneous abortions (SAs) (31%), 2 intra-uterine fetal deaths (IUFDs) (3%) and 11 cases of congenital brucellosis (17%). In 14 larger case series there were 181 SAs in 679 pregnancies (27%), 19 IUFDs in 458 pregnancies (4%), and 44 preterm infants (12%) plus 6 infants with congenital brucellosis (2%) in 362 pregnancies. SA, IUFD and preterm delivery incidence were increased with meta-analysis of the 5 case series with controls. Nine studies described brucellosis seroprevalence with adverse pregnancy outcomes with no increased seroprevalence in the two studies with controls. CONCLUSIONS: Brucellosis almost certainly causes SA with increasing evidence that it also leads to IUFD and prematurity. Congenital brucellosis occurs in approximately 2% of infants exposed in-utero.
BACKGROUND: The aim was to establish the incidence of adverse outcomes with brucellosis infection during pregnancy. METHODS: Ovid Medline (1946-), Ovid Embase (1974-), and Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) (1900-), the World Health Organization website and Google were searched September 27, 2017 for (i) outcomes with brucellosis diagnosed during pregnancy and (ii) studies with retrospective diagnosis of maternal brucellosis following adverse pregnancy outcomes. RESULTS: Sixty studies met inclusion criteria. In 65 pregnancies from 28 case reports and 9 small case series (<10 women), there were 20 spontaneous abortions (SAs) (31%), 2 intra-uterine fetal deaths (IUFDs) (3%) and 11 cases of congenital brucellosis (17%). In 14 larger case series there were 181 SAs in 679 pregnancies (27%), 19 IUFDs in 458 pregnancies (4%), and 44 preterm infants (12%) plus 6 infants with congenital brucellosis (2%) in 362 pregnancies. SA, IUFD and preterm delivery incidence were increased with meta-analysis of the 5 case series with controls. Nine studies described brucellosis seroprevalence with adverse pregnancy outcomes with no increased seroprevalence in the two studies with controls. CONCLUSIONS:Brucellosis almost certainly causes SA with increasing evidence that it also leads to IUFD and prematurity. Congenital brucellosis occurs in approximately 2% of infants exposed in-utero.