Table 2.
The demographics and clinical characteristics of patients with NMOSD with pregnancies after disease onset
| Primary cohort | Validation cohort | |
| Number of patients | 60 | 35 |
| Number of AQP4-ab/MOG-ab positivity | 50/5 | 33/2 |
| Number of pregnancies after disease onset | 76 | 44 |
| Time interval from disease onset to first relapse, m, median (range) | 15.0 (0–231.0) | 12.0 (0–108.0) |
| Age at disease onset, year, mean±SD | 23.8±6.3 | 23.5±5.4 |
| Age at delivery/abortion, year, mean±SD | 28.7±4.4 | 29.6±4.2 |
| Total number of pregnancy-related attacks | 69 | 44 |
| Type of pregnancy-related attack, n (%) | ||
| Optic neuritis | 31 (44.9) | 19 (45.5) |
| Acute myelitis | 35 (50.7) | 28 (63.6) |
| Area postrema syndrome | 4 (5.8) | 2 (4.5) |
| Acute brainstem syndrome | 4 (5.8) | 0 (0) |
| Concomitant auto-antibodies, n (%) | 26 (43.3) | 15 (42.9) |
| ANA | 22 (36.7) | 14 (40.0) |
| ENA-ab | 12 (20.0) | 5 (14.3) |
| dsDNA-ab | 1 (1.7) | 2 (5.7) |
| ANCA | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
| ACA | 1 (1.7) | 0 (0) |
| TPO-ab and TG-ab | 13 (21.7) | 1 (2.9) |
| Treatment variables, n (%) | ||
| Adequate treatment* | 10 (13.2) | 13 (29.5) |
| Inadequate treatment† | 66 (86.8) | 31 (70.5) |
*Adequate treatment was defined as (1) usage of relatively higher dose oral prednisone (>10 mg/day), (2) usage of immunosuppressant (azathioprine 100 mg/day or tacrolimus 3 mg/day) combined with or without oral steroid, (3) a dose of rituximab (375 mg/m2) within 6 months before conception and shortly after delivery.
†Inadequate treatment referred to (1) no treatment at all, (2) usage of low-dose oral prednisone (≤10 mg/day) as single therapy.
ACA, anticardiolipin antibody; ANA, antinuclear antibody; ANCA, antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody; AQP4-ab, aquaporin-4 antibody; dsDNA-ab, double-stranded DNA antibody; ENA-ab, extractable nuclear antigen antibody; MOG-ab, myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody; NMOSD, neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder; TG-ab, thyroglobulin antibody; TPO-ab, thyroid peroxidase antibody.