Congenital Heart Block and Connective Tissue Disease

Excerpt

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an immunologically mediated disease occurring most frequently in a female population of child-bearing age with target organs potentially in any body system. Several recent publications have brought to attention the fact that the fetus of a mother with systemic lupus erythematosus is also at risk to develop complications of its mother's disease. Most offspring of the mothers are normal, but transient as well as permanent residua have been observed, including the well-recognized phenomenon of discoid rash, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and Coombs'-positive hemolytic anemia with LE cells and antinuclear antibodies. These transient phenomena occur at or soon