Physiological changes caused by pregnancy have been shown to increase the risk that pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2 may develop obstetric complications. For this reason, a group of researchers that is part of the Spanish Obstetric Emergency Group (SOEG), including Dra. Pilar Prats of Dexeus Mujer, has carried out a large prospective study performed in more than 78 centres in order to compare obstetric and perinatal results in 1,347 pregnant women infected by COVID 19 with respect to a sample of 1607 SARS-CoV-2-negative pregnancies. SOEG has one of the largest registries of pregnant women infected by COVID 19 in the world. The study was carried out in the period of the first two waves with the highest incidence of infection in Spain, from 1st March to 5th May, and from 14th July to 5th November 2020. All procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee on medical and clinical research of the Puerta del Hierro University Hospital in Madrid.

Of the 1,347 positive pregnancies, 51.1% were asymptomatic at the time of delivery, while 48.9% had symptoms. Among symptomatic patients, 70.9% had mild or moderate symptoms, 25.2% had pneumonia, and 3.9% (complicated pneumonia / shock (with admission to the ICU and / or mechanical ventilation and / or septic shock). ikewise, between both groups differences were observed in premature rupture of membranes; venous thrombotic events and the incidence of severe pre-eclampsia, which could have been overestimated in the infected cohort due to shared laboratory signs between this hypertensive disorder and COVID-19.

The authors conclude that pregnant patients infected by SARS-CoV-2 are a population at risk of preterm deliveries, mainly due to iatrogenic deliveries in women with pneumonia and / or pre-eclampsia and indicate that it is urgent now to perform an in-depth analysis of the influence of SARS-CoV-2 infection on the development of pre-eclampsia, and the risk factors for admission to the ICU of pregnant women infected by SARS-CoV-2.

Reference article:

Pregnancy Outcomes and SARS-CoV-2 Infection: The Spanish Obstetric Emergency Group Study
Viruses. 2021 May 7;13(5):853. doi: 10.3390/v13050853.