Human parvovirus B19 in Iranian pregnant women: A serologic survey

Parvovirus B19 infection is associated with clinical symptoms that
vary in the spectrum from trivial to severe. The important clinical manifestations
are erythema infectiosum or the fifth disease, transient aplastic anemia in
patients with hemoglobinopathies, acute polyarthralgia syndrome in adults,
hydrops fetalis, spontaneous abortion and stillbirth. Acute infection in nonimmune
pregnant women can lead to fetal hydrops. In view of the many complications that
can result from acute parvovirus B19 infections during pregnancy, documenting
the seroprevalence of anti-parvovirus B19 IgG and its association with the
history of abortion in an Iranian population of pregnant women would be of
value. Materials and Methods: Serum samples from 86 pregnant women were
collected between May and September 2011 in West Azerbaijan province of Iran.
Every pregnant woman completed a questionnaire which included age, history
of tattooing, blood transfusion, and abortion. Anti-B19 specific IgG was detected
by using commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Results: Anti-B19-
specific IgG antibody was detected in (65/86, 75.6%) of pregnant women. The
mean age was 25.56 ± 5.30 years and three women had a documented history of
blood transfusion (2 of them tested seropositive for B19). 16/18 (88.8%) of women
with a history of abortion were IgG positive. The frequency of abortion sessions
in the seropositive group (25 sessions of abortion: 11 women experienced
once, 2 twice, 2 thrice and one 4 times) was 4.03 times greater than abortion
in seronegative group (2 abortions/21 seronegative women). Conclusion: Our
study reaffirms previous reports regarding the higher frequency of abortion
among anti-B19 IgG seropositive pregnant women and a possible role of this
viral infection in the pathogenesis of abortion.