Long-Term Outcomes of Children Born to Anti-Ro Antibody-Positive Mothers With and Without Rheumatic Disease.

Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of allergy, and/or neurodevelopmental and autoimmune diagnoses in children born to anti-Ro antibody-positive mothers.

Methods: We conducted a cohort study of children born to anti-Ro antibody-positive mothers observed in the neonatal lupus erythematosus (NLE) clinic at The Hospital for Sick Children. Participants one year of age or older were invited to complete a health status questionnaire. Prevalence of allergic, neurodevelopmental, and autoimmune disease diagnoses was compared between the NLE cohort and the non-NLE population-based CHILD Cohort Study cohort. Descriptive statistics were used for demographics, NLE manifestations, and outcomes. Fisher's exact test compared the prevalence of diagnoses between subgroups. We tested the association between allergies and neurodevelopmental conditions and NLE with logistic regression models. A P-value < 0.006 was considered significant.

Results: We included 321 participants born to anti-Ro antibody-positive mothers. The median age at survey completion was six years, 51% of participants were female, and 50% (n = 162) had NLE. We found no significant difference in any disease prevalence between children with and without NLE manifestations (P = 0.57) or between children born to mothers with and without a rheumatic disease (P = 0.11). Disease prevalence was similar between the NLE and CHILD cohorts (allergic disease 30% vs 22% [P= 0.25], neurodevelopmental conditions 5% vs 2% [P = 0.45], autoimmune disease 4% vs 2% [P = 0.68]).

Conclusion: In a large multiethnic cohort of infants born to anti-Ro antibody-positive mothers, there was no significant difference in the prevalence of allergic, neurodevelopmental, or autoimmune diseases between children with and without NLE or between those born to anti-Ro antibody-positive mothers and a population-based non-NLE cohort.