Autoimmune Disease Lupus in Pregnancy Can Lead to Hypertension

Suffering from autoimmune disease lupus during pregnancy increases the risks of preeclampsia, a new study found.

Autoimmune disorders occur when the immune system of the body fails to recognize healthy tissues and antigens and attacks them. Diabetes, Graves' disease, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus  (SLE) are some of the disorders included in the list.

Lupus is also an autoimmune disease wherein the immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks normal and healthy tissue. This results in inflammation, swelling, and damage to joints, skin, kidneys, blood, the heart, and lungs.

Normally, the immune system makes proteins called antibodies in order to protect and fight against antigens such as viruses and bacteria. Lupus makes the immune system unable to differentiate between antigens and healthy tissue. This leads the immune system to direct antibodies against the healthy tissue - not just antigens - causing swelling, pain, and tissue damage 

According to the Lupus Foundation of America, 1.5 to 2 million Americans have some form of lupus.

Preeclampsia is a condition that triggers hypertension and will have a negative impact on both the pregnant women and their babies. Women suffering from preeclampsia will have high blood pressure, fluid retention and protein in the urine leading to adverse impact on the growth of the unborn baby in the uterus.

For the study, lead author Kristin Palmsten and colleagues included 307,000 pregnancies among 225,000 Canada women and analyzed safety of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) medicines like methotrexate (brand names Rheumatrex and Trexall), hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil, Quineprox), etanercept (Enbrel) and adalimumab (Humira) to treat lupus during pregnancy.

Researchers found autoimmune disease lupus during pregnancy associated with two-fold higher risks of developing preeclampsia and use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) slightly escalating the risks, Health Day reported.

"Our findings uphold previous evidence, showing that women with [lupus] had twice the risk of developing preeclampsia," Health Day quoted Palmsten, of the Harvard School of Public Health, as saying.

"The statistically non-significant increase in preeclampsia risk found for DMARDs was reduced when we more fully accounted for the potential effect of the autoimmune diseases, suggesting that the underlying disease or severity of the disease was likely contributing to the increased risk of preeclampsia among DMARD users."

Findings of the study have been published in the journal Arthritis Care & Research.