Clinical Medicine Insights: Reproductive Health

Objective: To determine the role of anti-annexin V antibodies (a-A5) as an etiologic factor in recurrent pregnancy failure.

Study design: Prospective observational study.

Material and methods: The study included ninety first trimester pregnant women who had a history of unexplained recurrent miscarriage (group I) with ninety well-matched pregnant women with a history of normal reproductive outcome allocated as control group (GII) and another ninety nonpregnant women (GIII). Sera from all women controls were analyzed for anti-annexin antibody measured by Elisa.

Results: The mean value of a-A5 was 11.37 ± 6.78, 7.7 ± 1.40 and 6.20 ± 0.95 ng/ml in groups I, II and III respectively. There was a significant increase in the mean value a-A5 among women with a history of recurrent miscarriage, compared with controls. The mean value was 13.92 ± 2.42 ng/ml among patients with unfavourable outcome, compared with a corresponding value of 6.95 V 0.58 ng/ml among women with favourable outcome. The receiver operator characteristic curve revealed that the cutoff value of a-A5 was 8.61 ng/ml.

Conclusion: This study emphasizes the relationship between anti-annexin V antibodies and recurrent miscarriage.