Hindawi Publishing Corporation Autoimmune Diseases Volume 2015, Article ID 943490, 18 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/943490 Review Article Understanding and Managing Pregnancy in Patients with Lupus Guilherme Ramires de Jesus,1 Claudia Mendoza-Pinto,2,3 Nilson Ramires de Jesus,1 Flávia Cunha dos Santos,1 Evandro Mendes Klumb,4 Mario García Carrasco,2,3 and Roger Abramino Levy4 1 DepartmentofObstetrics,UniversidadedoEstadodoRiodeJaneiro,RiodeJaneiro,Brazil 2Systemic Autoimmune Diseases Research Unit, Hospital General Regional No. 36-CIBIOR, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Puebla, Mexico 3Department of Immunology and Rheumatology, Medicine School, Benemerita´ Universidad Autonoma´ de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico 4Department of Rheumatology, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Correspondence should be addressed to Guilherme Ramires de Jesus;
[email protected] Received 1 April 2015; Accepted 31 May 2015 Academic Editor: Juan-Manuel Anaya Copyright © 2015 Guilherme Ramires de Jesus et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic, multisystemic autoimmune disease that occurs predominantly in women of fertile age. The association of SLE and pregnancy, mainly with active disease and especially with nephritis, has poorer pregnancy outcomes, with increased frequency of preeclampsia, fetal loss, prematurity, growth restriction, and newborns small for gestational age. Therefore, SLE pregnancies are considered high risk condition, should be monitored frequently during pregnancy and delivery should occur in a controlled setting. Pregnancy induces dramatic immune and neuroendocrine changes in the maternal body in order to protect the fetus from immunologic attack and these modifications can be affected by SLE.