The management, outcome, and postpartum disease course of 41 pregnancies in 20 women with polycythemia vera.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Pregnancies in women with polycythemia vera (PV) are associated with an increased risk of PV-related maternal complications and often result in miscarriage. Recommendations for the management of PV pregnancies are mainly based on studies with a small number of patients. A correlation between pregnancy outcome and postpartum course has been reported for essential thrombocythemia, but corresponding data for PV are lacking so far. METHODS: In 41 PV pregnancies, the pregnancy outcome, the use of PV-specific therapies (ie, acetylsalicylic acid, low-molecular weight heparin and/or interferon-alpha), and the postpartum PV course were investigated. RESULTS: A live birth rate of 51.2% (21/41 pregnancies) was observed. 43.9% of pregnancies ended in spontaneous abortion and 4.9% in stillbirth. A significantly increased live birth rate occurred in pregnancies with PV-specific therapies compared to standard antenatal care (69.0% vs. 8.3%; P < .0019). The use of PV-specific therapy significantly increased the number of maternal hemorrhages (P = .021) without increasing the risk of fetal complications. During the median postpartum follow-up period of 1.2 years (range 0.1-13.7), complicated postpartum PV occurred significantly more often after miscarriages (P = .035). CONCLUSIONS: According to our analysis, PV-specific therapy improved the live birth rate. Significantly more complicated postpartum PV courses were observed after miscarriages.