Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

How Much Does SARS-CoV-2 Infection during Pregnancy Affect the Neonatal Brain, Heart and Kidney? A Parallel between COVID-19, Vaccination and Normal Pregnancy

Daniela Eugenia Popescu
ORCID logo ,
Ana Maria Cristina Jura
* ,
Daniela Știube
,
Adrian Ciulpan
ORCID logo ,
Florina Stoica
,
Simona Ioana Sipos
,
Cosmin Citu
ORCID logo ,
Florin Gorun
ORCID logo ,
Marioara Boia
Version 1 : Received: 3 January 2024 / Approved: 4 January 2024 / Online: 4 January 2024 (15:17:29 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Popescu, D.E.; Jura, A.M.C.; Știube, D.; Ciulpan, A.; Stoica, F.; Șipoș, S.I.; Cîtu, C.; Gorun, F.; Boia, M. How Much Does SARS-CoV-2 Infection during Pregnancy Affect the Neonatal Brain, Heart, and Kidney? A Parallel between COVID-19, Vaccination, and Normal Pregnancy. Life 2024, 14, 224. Popescu, D.E.; Jura, A.M.C.; Știube, D.; Ciulpan, A.; Stoica, F.; Șipoș, S.I.; Cîtu, C.; Gorun, F.; Boia, M. How Much Does SARS-CoV-2 Infection during Pregnancy Affect the Neonatal Brain, Heart, and Kidney? A Parallel between COVID-19, Vaccination, and Normal Pregnancy. Life 2024, 14, 224.

Abstract

During the last decades, a growing number of studies have shown that infections during pregnancy have an important impact on both pregnant women and their fetuses. Our goal was to identify newborns from pregnancies with SARS-CoV-2 infection and to investigate the extension of neonatal complications using cardiac, abdominal and cerebral ultrasonography, hearing testing and indirect ophthalmoscopy. By contrast, neonates whose mothers were vaccinated against COVID-19 during pregnancy and those from pathology-free pregnancies have been examined. A total of 458 newborns were included, over a period of 10 months, divided into 3 groups, COVID-19 group, vaccine group and control group. Although 6 cardiac malformations were found in the COVID-19 group, no correlation was made compared to the vaccine and control group (p=0.07). Grade 1 intraventricular hemorrhage and hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy were the most prevalent among neonates from mothers with SARS-CoV-2 infection (p=0.002 and p<0.001, respectively). The kidney anomaly found to be most frequent in this group was grade 1 unilateral hydronephrosis (p<0.001). COVID-19 disease during the gestational period had no effect on the auditory or visual function. Despite the fact that our observations are relevant, further studies investigating the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy and the neonatal outcomes are necessary.

Keywords

pregnancy; COVID-19; neonatal; ultrasound; infectious diseases; SARS-CoV-2; vaccine; disease course

Subject

Medicine and Pharmacology, Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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