A 10-year study on lupus patients has found that good pregnancy outcome can be expected in most women if their lupus is inactive and they are free of certain risk factors.

The study is called Predictors of Pregnancy Outcome: biomarkers in antiphospholipid antibody Syndrome and Systemic lupus Erythematosus (PROMISSE). It was conducted by researchers at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) and funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.

Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease, which primarily affects women of childbearing age. The body's immune system mistakenly attacks and damages healthy tissue. It can affect the skin, joints, kidneys, brain and other organs.

PROMISSE was launched in 2003 in which researchers analyzed 385 pregnant women between September 2003 and December 2012.

The women enrolled for the study at eight sites in the United States and Canada in the first 12 weeks of their pregnancies had inactive or stable mild to moderate lupus disease activity.

The principal investigator of the study was Jane E. Salmon, M. D., Director of the Lupus and APS Center of Excellence and Collette Kean Research Chair at Hospital for Special Surgery.

The results revealed that 81% of pregnancies were free of complications and reported only 5% fetal or neonatal death in pregnancies. Only 9% of women had a preterm delivery and 10% of babies had a low birth weight.

Dr. Salmon said, 'It was exciting to see that severe lupus flares occurred in less than three percent of women during pregnancy".