ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Panminerva Medica 2000 June;42(2):105-8

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Recurrent spontaneous abortion. Etiologic factors

Patriarca A., Piccioni V., Gigante V., Parise G., Benedetto C.

From the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Chair C, University of Turin, Italy

Background. Spontaneous abor­tion is the ­most com­mon com­pli­ca­tion of preg­nan­cy. It may be ­unique, remain­ing ran­dom and hav­ing no con­se­quenc­es on the repro­duc­tive pro­cess, or it can ­repeat ­itself, start­ing a clin­i­cal pic­ture ­known as recur­rent spon­ta­ne­ous abor­tion or habit­u­al abor­tion. The ­term of RSA syn­drome is ­used to ­define the rep­e­ti­tion of ­three or ­more con­sec­u­tive abor­tions ­before the 24th ­week.
Methods. A pop­u­la­tion of 195 cou­ples ­with recur­rent spon­ta­ne­ous abor­tion ­were ­screened for genet­ic, meta­bol­ic, infec­tive, mor­pho­log­i­cal, endo­crine and auto­im­mune fac­tors. Eighty-­five com­plet­ed the inves­ti­ga­tion, 44 are ­being test­ed and 66 did not com­plete the diag­nos­tic ­course. Causes of recur­rent abor­tion ­were eval­u­at­ed in rela­tion to the peri­od of abor­tion and num­ber of ­embryo los­ses.
Results. Forty-six per­cent of ­patients who com­plet­ed the inves­ti­ga­tion ­turned out to be ­sine cau­sa, ­which is in accor­dance ­with the find­ings in lit­er­a­ture.
Conclusions. Couple ­with RSA ­require accu­rate coun­sel­ling and it is fun­da­men­tal to elim­i­nate any pathol­o­gies ­that can be dis­cov­ered so as to ­improve the like­li­hood of the ­pregnancy’s reach­ing ­term.