Association between COVID-19 Infection and Miscarriages, What We Really Know?
Ioannis Chrysanthopoulos,
Anastasios Potiris,
Eirini Drakaki,
Despoina Mavrogianni,
Nikolaos Machairiotis,
Paul Zarogoulidis,
Theodoros Karampitsakos,
Pavlos Machairoudias,
Dionysios Vrachnis,
Periklis Panagopoulos,
Peter Drakakis,
Sofoklis Stavros
Affiliations
Ioannis Chrysanthopoulos
First Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Alexandra Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
Anastasios Potiris
Third Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University General Hospital “ATTIKON”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 124 62 Athens, Greece
Eirini Drakaki
First Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Alexandra Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
Despoina Mavrogianni
First Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Alexandra Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
Nikolaos Machairiotis
Third Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University General Hospital “ATTIKON”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 124 62 Athens, Greece
Paul Zarogoulidis
Pulmonary Department, General Clinic Euromedica, 544 54 Thessaloniki, Greece
Theodoros Karampitsakos
Third Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University General Hospital “ATTIKON”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 124 62 Athens, Greece
Pavlos Machairoudias
Third Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University General Hospital “ATTIKON”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 124 62 Athens, Greece
Dionysios Vrachnis
Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 27 Athens, Greece
Periklis Panagopoulos
Third Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University General Hospital “ATTIKON”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 124 62 Athens, Greece
Peter Drakakis
First Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Alexandra Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
Sofoklis Stavros
Third Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University General Hospital “ATTIKON”, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 124 62 Athens, Greece
Background: COVID-19 is a modern worldwide pandemic that affected and continues to affect millions of people around the world. Since the discovery that angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the binding site for COVID-19 to achieve cell entry, there has been a continuous debate about the effect of COVID-19 infection in first and second trimester abortions. The aim of this review is to investigate the impact of COVID-19 infection on the incidence of miscarriage. Furthermore, we seek to identify potential pathophysiological mechanisms of early pregnancy loss present in infected women. Methods: A literature review was conducted on different databases, including PubMed, Google Scholar, Ovid, Science Direct, Scopus, and Cochrane library, between 1 January 2020 and 31 August 2023. A total of 364 articles were identified and 32 articles were ultimately included in the review. Results: There are several case studies that provide evidence that early pregnancy loss is associated with COVID-19 infection. These findings are not further confirmed by the majority of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, which demonstrate that the total number of miscarriages do not differ significantly between infected and non-infected groups. Furthermore, there are also case reports that associate COVID-19 infection with late second trimester abortions. Conclusions: Given that the virus persists globally, it is important to gain a better understanding of its associated risks in the reproductive process, and larger, more homogeneous, and controlled studies are required to obtain more robust data that can be meta-analyzed to obtain an overview of this potential relationship.
