Asymptomatic Maternal Diseases Presenting with Symptomatic Neonatal Manifestations: A Short Case Series

Abstract

It is documented that maternal diseases or treatments influence a newborn’s clinical status at birth. If a prenatal medical history is not available, or if signs or symptoms of a mother’s disease are revealed for the first time during pregnancy or postpartum, their effects on the newborn may be misattributed. Objective: The objective of this study is to emphasize the paramount importance of prenatal care, for both mothers and newborns, as a lack of maternal signs and symptoms during pregnancy does not exclude a potential severe neonatal condition. Materials and methods: We present a series of three cases of pregnant women who gave birth to very sick preterm newborns that required admission to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The mothers were asymptomatic during pregnancy and unaware of their subclinical disease. The newborns’ complications, considered initially as consequences of prematurity or infection, subsequently revealed transient autoimmune disease in two of the cases (myasthenia gravis and hyperthyroidism) and a severe form of thrombophilia in the third case. Results: The newborns’ diagnosis preceded maternal diagnosis and contributed to the identification of the maternal pathology; adequate treatment was prescribed, with favorable short- and long-term outcomes. Conclusions: Prenatal exams and investigations throughout pregnancy are a good opportunity to detect subclinical diseases or predispositions. As newborns usually develop non-specific signs, one should have experience and pay attention to differentiating among etiologies. Our paper takes a reversed approach to the usual medical diagnosis pathway: from infant to mother instead of from mother to infant, proving that inter-specialty collaboration can work bi-directionally.

Keywords

• postpartum diagnosis
• maternal–infant disease
• asymptomatic diseases in pregnancy
• neonatal effect of maternal antibodies
• genetic diseases during pregnancy