Rheumatoid Arthritis and Pregnancy – a PhD Project based on the National Quality Register RevNatus.

 PhD candidate: Ingunn Sagberg, M.D.

Supervisors: Professor Marianne Wallenius, Professor Stian Lydersen, Postdoktor Carina Skorpen

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common inflammatory rheumatic diseases that affects women in fertile age. Both the disease itself and the medical treatment can affect the pregnancy. In this study of women with RA, we aim to investigate the activity of the disease during the pregnancy and for one year post partum, and if the inflammatory activity affects certain unwanted pregnancy outcomes. 

About the project: This project focuses on women of reproductive age diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) based on data from the RevNatus database. RevNatus is a quality register that collects data from pregnant women with inflammatory arthritis or connective tissue diseases, from all rheumatic departments in Norway. The patients are included in the registry before becoming pregnant and are followed with one registration per trimester, then at 6 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months after birth. 

Goal: The main focus will be to study changes in disease activity during pregnancy and the first year postpartum, and associations with antibodies, joint damage and use of medication. Furthermore, we will look at the association between high disease activity during pregnancy and the risk of adverse events such as preeclampsia, birth before week 37 of pregnancy, and growth abnormalities in the fetus by using linked data from RevNatus and the Medical Birth Registry (MFR). Finally, we will examine the risk of caesarean section and associations with disease activity and health-related quality of life such as pain, physical function, and mental health measured using standardized methodology (RAND-12).