Prenatal Biochemical and Ultrasound Markers in COVID-19 Pregnant Patients: A Prospective Case-Control Study
Stefano Cosma, Andrea Roberto Carosso, Fulvio Borella, Jessica Cusato, Marialuisa Bovetti, Federica Bevilacqua, Marco Carosso, Fiammetta Gervasoni, Andrea Sciarrone, Luca Marozio, Alberto Revelli, Alessandro Rolfo, Claudia Filippini, Valeria Ghisetti, Giovanni Di Perri, Chiara Benedetto
Diagnostics (Basel). 2021 Feb 26;11(3):398. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics11030398.
Abstract
This prospective observational study aimed to evaluate whether women with SARS-CoV-2 infection during the first trimester of pregnancy are at higher risk of noninvasive prenatal screening test alterations and/or of congenital fetal anomalies at the second-trimester fetal anatomy scan. Maternal symptoms were secondly investigated. The study was carried out on 12-week pregnant women admitted for noninvasive prenatal testing (16 April and 22 June 2020). The cohort had seromolecular tests for SARS-CoV-2, after which they were divided into a positive case group and a negative control group. Both groups had 20-week ultrasound screening. Seventeen out of the 164 women tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (10.3%). There were no significant differences in mean nuchal translucency thickness or biochemical markers (pregnancy-associated plasma protein A, alpha-fetoprotein, human chorionic gonadotropin, unconjugated estriol) between cases and controls (p = 0.77, 0.63, 0.30, 0.40, 0.28) or in the fetal incidence of structural anomalies at the second-trimester fetal anatomy scan (p = 0.21). No pneumonia or hospital admission due to COVID-19-related symptoms were observed. Asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection during the first trimester of pregnancy did not predispose affected women to more fetal anomalies than unaffected women. COVID-19 had a favorable maternal course at the beginning of pregnancy in our healthy cohort.