Pregnancy Outcomes According to the Gestational Age of Acquiring COVID-19 : an International Case-control Study
Pregnancy Outcomes According to the Gestational Age of Acquiring COVID-19 : an International Case-control Study
A new coronavirus, called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) appeared in Wuhan, China and it arrived to Europe 2-3 months later. It infected millions of persons and led to the death of thousands until May 2020 where numbers of infections per week decreased significantly. However, starting September, number of infections started to escalate again and continued to rise until now.
Hundreds of good quality articles were published during this period to study the relationship and effects of this virus on pregnancy and vice versa, as well as to determine the adverse neonatal and obstetrical outcomes following the infection. In a case-control study using propensity score matching at the level of age, body mass index and comorbidities (diabetes, hypertension, asthma), pregnant women over 20 week's gestation had significantly higher risk for intensive care unit stay, endotracheal intubation, hospitalization for disease related symptoms and need for oxygen therapy. A new systematic review also demonstrated increased risk for ICU admission in pregnant women compared to non-pregnant women and to non-infected pregnant women.
On the other hand, many researchers have demonstrated that the rates of preterm delivery and cesarean delivery have increased as well, others reported a close relation between SARS-CoV2 infection and preeclampsia or preeclampsia like condition. Enormous effort was done in order to understand adverse outcomes related to this infection, however, most studies included patients in the third or late second trimester. Few studies stratified adverse outcomes of the patients according to the trimester of infection.
Inclusion Criteria:
Pregnant women with viable fetus after 10 weeks' gestation and known pregnancy outcome during the period starting on February 1st 2020 and ending on November 30th 2020.
Exclusion Criteria:
All ongoing pregnancies, those with unknown outcomes, those terminated medically or voluntary, as well as patients with spontaneous abortion before the 11th gestational week.