Feasibility of hydroxychloroquine adjuvant therapy in pregnant women with systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to investigate the clinical effects of hydroxychloroquine adjuvant therapy in pregnant women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Methods: A total of 78 pregnant women with SLE from February 2016 to August 2017 were recruited and divided into two groups, control (n=39) and observation (n=39), by using a random number table. The observation group received hydroxychloroquine adjuvant therapy, whereas the control group received conventional symptomatic treatment. The lupus activity during pregnancy, term birth rate, pregnancy and fetus outcomes, new-born Apgar score, and neonatal weight of the two groups were compared. Results: The occurrence rate of lupus during pregnancy in the observation group was 25.64%, which was significantly lower than that of the control group (51.28%) (P<0.05). The observation group achieved significantly higher term birth rate (84.62%) than the control group (58.97%) (P<0.05). The occurrence rates of bad pregnancy and fetus outcomes of the observation and control groups were 17.95% and 44.44%, respectively, which showed a significant difference (P<0.05). The new-born Apgar score and neonatal weight of the observation group were 9.61 ± 0.25 and 2.78 ± 0.56 kg, whereas those of the control group were 8.10 ± 0.31 and 2.47 ± 0.58 kg, showing a significant difference (P<0.05). Conclusions: Hydroxychloroquine adjuvant therapy exerts outstanding clinical effects to pregnant patients with SLE. This therapy not only improves pregnancy outcome but also reduces the occurrence of lupus. This method has a very high clinical application value and is worthy of further clinical research and applications.