Tehran University Medical Journal

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Background: Spontaneous hepatic rupture is a rare condition during pregnancy. Pregnant women with Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes and Low Platelete count (HELLP) syndrome are more susceptible to hepatic rupture. It can occur per 40000 to 250000 pregnancies with high mortality and morbidity. There is no agreement on the best approach to this severe pregnancy complication. This is the case report of a spontaneous hepatic rupture associated with HELLP syndrome during pregnancy which occurred for the first time in the West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Case Presentation: A 33 years old lady gravida 6, 3 intrauterine fetal deaths, 2 neonatal deaths at 30th weeks of gestation was admitted for preeclampsia. On admission, she had thrombocytopenia and elevated liver enzyme. Cesarean section was performed due to fetal distress and a preterm fetus was born. Inspection of the abdomen revealed a large hematoma in the right liver lobe associated with rupture of the capsule. Liver packing was performed by general surgeon and the abdomen was closed without repairing of fascia. In the 2nd day after operation, the patient was oriented but the abdomen reopened because of very low blood pressure. There was no severe liver hemorrhage so the liver was packed again with many surgicels. She developed acute kidney and liver failure, pleural effusion and a major coagulopathy post-operatively. Three weeks after surgery the abdomen was reopened for dehiscence and fascia was closed. The patient discharged after 40 days. Conclusion: Spontaneous liver rupture associated with HELLP syndrome is a rare and life-threatening complication of pregnancy. Unruptured liver hematoma is also a rare condition during pregnancy with a very difficult diagnosis. Using clinical diagnostic tests such as CT scan or MRI would be helpful to improve clinical outcomes.

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Background: Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection may be having no clinical symptoms and if not treated will be persisting. This infection was considered as gastric diseases even during pregnancy. During the last decade its relationship with pregnancy related- disorders has been strongly reported in literature. In this study we evaluated the effect of positive IgG and CagA strains helicobacter pylori on incidence of early spontaneous abortions. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 100 women were referred to health centers and Motahari Hospital, Urmia, Iran, from October 2012 to March 2013. Fifty women with first miscarriage as cases and 50 women with previous normal delivery as controls were studied. A 2-cc blood sample was taken from each patient to evaluate the specific IgG titer by ELISA method. All results of samples with positive H. pylori IgG, were assayed for anti-CagA, IgG antibodies. A questionnaire was filled for each subject. The associations between CagA positive cases with odds of spontaneous abortion incidence were analyzed by using SPSS software, ver. 19 (Chicago, IL, USA). Results: Mean (±SD) of age were 21.0±5.78 and 30.78±5.10 years for cases and controls group respectively. There was no significant difference in mean of age (P=0.25), and parity (P=1) between two groups. H. pylori IgG antibodies were positive among 23 and 24 (46% vs. 48%) in women with aborted and normal pregnancy respectively. Relationship between IgG status and miscarriage was not significant (OR=0.92, CI95%: 0.39-2.17, P=0.84). In particular anti-CagA antibodies were positive among 18 and 13(78.3% vs. 54.2%) in women with aborted and normal pregnancy respectively. Among women with CagA positive strains had higher odds of miscarriage (OR=3.05, CI95%: 0.73-13.76, P=0.08), but it wasn’t significant. Conclusion: According to the result of this study there was not any association between HP infection and miscarriage. We recommend more studies with larger sample size for determining the effect of CagA positive strains on miscarriage.