Consequences of brucellosis infection during pregnancy: A systematic review of the literature. (August 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Alsaif, Manal; Dabelah, Kamal; Featherstone, Robin; Robinson, Joan L.
• Is Part Of: International journal of infectious diseases. Volume 73(2018)
• Page Start: 18
• Page End: 26
• Publication Date: 2018-08
• Subjects: Brucellosis -- Pregnancy -- Congenital infection -- Spontaneous abortion -- Intrauterine fetal death; Communicable diseases -- Periodicals; Communicable Diseases -- Periodicals; Communicable diseases; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 616.9
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2018.05.023
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1201-9712

Abstract

Highlights: Brucellosis in pregnancy almost certainly leads to spontaneous abortion. Brucellosis in pregnancy probably increases the risk of intra-uterine fetal death and prematurity. About 2% of infants exposed in-utero develop congenital brucellosis. Abstract: Background: The aim was to establish the incidence of adverse outcomes with brucellosis infection during pregnancy. Methods: Ovid Medline (1946-), Ovid Embase (1974-), and Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) (1900-), the World Health Organization website and Google were searched September 27, 2017 for (i) outcomes with brucellosis diagnosed during pregnancy and (ii) studies with retrospective diagnosis of maternal brucellosis following adverse pregnancy outcomes. Results: Sixty studies met inclusion criteria. In 65 pregnancies from 28 case reports and 9 small case series (<10 women), there were 20 spontaneous abortions (SAs) (31%), 2 intra-uterine fetal deaths (IUFDs) (3%) and 11 cases of congenital brucellosis (17%). In 14 larger case series there were 181 SAs in 679 pregnancies (27%), 19 IUFDs in 458 pregnancies (4%), and 44 preterm infants (12%) plus 6 infants with congenital brucellosis (2%) in 362 pregnancies. SA, IUFD and preterm delivery incidence were increased with meta-analysis of the 5 case series with controls. Nine studies described brucellosis seroprevalence with adverse pregnancy outcomes with no increased seroprevalence in the two studies with controls. Conclusions: Brucellosis almost certainly causes SA with increasing evidence that it also leads to IUFD and prematurity. Congenital brucellosis occurs in approximately 2% of infants exposed in-utero.