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Human Reproduction, Vol. 14, No. 12, 2974-2979, December 1999
© 1999 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology

The prognostic value of anti-paternal antibodies and leukocyte immunizations on the proportion of live births in couples with consecutive recurrent miscarriages

Shlomit Orgad1,4, Ron Loewenthal1, Ephraim Gazit1, Siegal Sadetzki2, Ilya Novikov2 and Howard Carp3

1 Division of Transplantation Immunology, Tissue Typing Laboratory, 2 Department of Clinical Epidemiology and 3 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer 52621 and Department of Embryology, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Anti-paternal antibodies directed towards paternal leukocytes have been used to predict the prognosis for the subsequent pregnancy in women with consecutive recurrent miscarriages (CRM) and also to determine if the patient has become immune after paternal leukocyte immunization. The predictive value is controversial, as these antibodies are not essential for pregnancy to develop, and only occur in a minority of parous women. This study tried to determine the predictive value of these antibodies when assessed separately for women with five or more abortions and compared to women with three or four abortions. The patients were assessed separately so that the higher live birth rate in the latter group would not obscure meaningful results in the former group with a poor prognosis. Antibody production, whether spontaneous, or induced by immunization, raised the live birth rate in primary and tertiary aborters with three, four, five or more abortions. Anti-paternal antibodies increased the proportion of live births from 18.5 to 53.7% (P <= 0.01) and from 44.4 to 67.5% (P <= 0.001) in primary aborters with >= 5 CRM and 3–4 CRM respectively. Both immunization with paternal leukocytes per se and the ability to express anti-paternal antibodies were associated with an increased proportion of live births in the next pregnancy. Multivariate analysis showed that that the odds ratio for a live birth was approximately four times greater in women who were immunized and produced anti-paternal antibodies than in control patients. The lack of anti-paternal antibodies at initial testing could serve as a marker for the benefit of immunization with paternal leukocytes; the subsequent presence as a prognostic marker for the subsequent pregnancy.

Key words: anti-paternal antibodies/consecutive recurrent miscarriages/immunization

4 To whom correspondence should be addressed


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