Abstract

ABSTRACT
A case control study was carried out during October 2008 till September 2009 in Basrah. The study was designed to evaluate the occurrence of acute human parvovirus B19 infection among pregnant women and its association with spontaneous abortion.
A total of 182 blood samples were collected from the outpatient clinic, wards and emergency unit at Basrah Maternity and Children Hospital, 91 from women with spontaneous abortion and 91 from women with normal pregnancy as control matching cases in age and gravidity. Maternal serum was kept frozen at –20ºC until serological investigation by Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to detect parvovirus B19 IgM (ELISA-B19-IgM), then the positive cases were investigated to determine the level of interferon-gamma by ELISA kit and acute phase protein C-reactive protein (CRP) by latex agglutination test.
The overall prevalence of parvovirus B19 in study population was 53.8% for cases and 41.8% for control. All B19 positive cases were positive for interferon-gamma in different titers and 77.6% of B19-IgM positive cases were positive to CRP as well. The data indicate that the diagnosis of B19 infection during pregnancy should be considered more often, particularly in complete and missed types of abortion, as missed abortion represents more than 50% of B19 seropositive of spontaneously aborted ladies. Significantly (P<0.05) high percentage of B19 positive cases as well as fetal losses were observed in the second trimester. Also the results showed significant difference in B19 antibodies in relation to gravidity (P<0.05).
The main conclusion that human parvovirus B19 is common with high prevalence rates among pregnant in our region, and cases of complete and missed abortion should be investigated to exclude parvovirus B19 infections.