3 Topic Commentaries

Rheumatoid arthritis tied to birth outcomes

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  Eugenia Chock, MD, MPH

  Rheumatology

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  Yale School of Medicine

  Women with chronic inflammatory arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis, axial spondylarthritis, and psoriatic arthritis, are at a twofold higher risk than the general population of having preterm births as well as babies who are smaller in size," Chock said. "Preterm or smaller infants can have developmental delays, so the goal of our project is to identify why adverse pregnancy outcomes occur in these patients.

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  Eliza Chakravarty, MD

  Rheumatology

  •

  Stanford University School of Medicine

  Women with rheumatoid arthritis are typically somewhat older when they become pregnant," said Chakravarty. "However, even after adjusting for maternal age, they run a higher risk for adverse outcomes and generally experience longer hospital stays than other women.

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  Kaleb Michaud, PhD

  Rheumatology

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  University of Nebraska Medical Center

  Rheumatoid arthritis and lupus and their treatments can pose major problems for women during pregnancy and can even result in birth defects and spontaneous abortion," Dr. Michaud said. "We hope this study will bring these reproductive-health concerns to the forefront, especially among women in their childbearing years.

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