Rheumatological care of pregnant axial spondyloarthritis patients is important

The results are the first of its kind to analyse data from four European pregnancy registers in rheumatology and bring valuable new insights for women with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) who want to have children. The analysis showed that care by rheumatologists during pregnancy had a positive effect on both the course and outcome of the pregnancy. In particular, incidences of pre-eclampsia, premature birth, or low birth weight (below the 10th percentile) occurred with similar frequencies in both the rheumatologist-cared for patients with axSpA and the general healthy population.

These results underline the importance of consulting with a rheumatologist before conception, careful planning of the pregnancy and close monitoring of the underlying disease during pregnancy. The joint data analysis was carried out under the leadership of the DRFZ.

The Rhekiss pregnancy registry, which has been operated at the DRFZ since 2015, has been cooperating with pregnancy registries in France, Norway and Switzerland within the framework of the European Network of Pregnancy Registries in Rheumatology (EuNeP) since 2017. This collaboration is coordinated at the DRFZ and was funded by FOREUM Foundation for Research in Rheumatology for the first 3.5 years.