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TOXOPLASMOSIS IN PREGNANCY.

The obstetrical management of toxoplasmosis in pregnancy is not standardized, and testing is not mandatory in the United States. To identify and clinically assess women at risk, the authors analyzed serial antibody titers to toxoplasmosis for 22,845 pregnant women and followed their offspring through age 7.

Nearly 40 percent of the women had detectable levels of antibody, but only 2 percent had significantly increased levels. Of 513 women with high titers, 15 were identified as being at high risk for toxoplasmosis infection; 14 of these women were asymptomatic. The outcomes of these 15 pregnancies included three stillbirths, two cases of congenital toxoplasmosis, six normal infants, and four infants with some abnormality not referable to toxoplasmosis. Maternal infection was associated with maternal thrombophlebitis and asthma, and with cardiac defects in the newborn, associations that had not previously been described. Furthermore, the authors noted that subclinical maternal infection resulted in infant morbidity, including deafness, microcephaly, and low IQ.

If these results are confirmed by other studies, serial antibody tests for toxoplasmosis in pregnant women may be indicated.

— PMM

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine August 30, 1988

Citation(s):

Sever J L; Ellenberg J H; Ley A C et al. Toxoplasmosis: maternal and pediatric findings in 23,000 pregnancies. Pediatrics 1988 Aug 82 181-192.

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