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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Pregnant women with rheumatoid arthritis may have increased risks of high blood pressure, having an underweight baby or needing a cesarean section, a new study suggests.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) arises when the immune system mistakenly attacks tissue in the joints, leading to inflammation, pain and progressive joint damage. The disease is more common in women than men, and frequently develops during the childbearing years.

So far, studies have come to conflicting findings as to the potential effects of RA on pregnancy. Some, for example, have found that women with RA have higher risks of preterm delivery and having an underweight newborn, while others have found no such link.

For the new study, researchers used records from Taiwan’s national health system to compare 1,912 new mothers with RA with 9,560 new mothers without the disease.

They found that women with RA had a two-fold higher risk of pre-eclampsia — a potentially dangerous condition, marked by high blood pressure and protein in the urine, that develops in the second or third trimester… Continue reading