Serological study of rubella in pregnancy: two years of experience in Palermo (1984-1986)

Acta Eur Fertil. 1988 Jul-Aug;19(4):221-4.

Abstract

A serological survey was carried out by means of an ELISA capture-immunoassay for IgM and by means of the haemagglutino-inhibition method or ELISA for IgG antibodies on 715 women in fertile age and on 12 patients suffering from rubella or rubella-like syndrome. Fetal serum samples were obtained at fetoscopy from 4 pregnant women at different gestational age. The overall results show that although the high percentage (greater than 80.0%) of anti-rubella positive women in fertile age in our country, 18 out of 54 women in pregnancy, having had contacts with people affected by rubella or rubella-like syndrome, showed a seroconversion for rubella virus. The outcome of the pregnancy in these patients is known for 11 cases only: six women decided for abortion, four had a normal baby and one, mother of twins, bore an apparently healthy child the other one being dead 4 hrs after the delivery owing to fetal respiratory distress. Conclude this study some considerations on the necessity to emphasize the opportunity for a mass vaccination program and on the importance for more than one serological test to discriminate among different rubella-like syndromes.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Antibodies, Viral / analysis*
  • Antibodies, Viral / immunology
  • Female
  • Fetoscopy
  • Humans
  • Pregnancy
  • Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / diagnosis*
  • Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / immunology
  • Prenatal Diagnosis*
  • Rubella / diagnosis*
  • Rubella Syndrome, Congenital / diagnosis

Substances

  • Antibodies, Viral
  • rubella antibodies