Purpose: to identify recurrent spontaneous abortion- associated factors. Subjects: one hundred seventy-five outpatients were investigated from March 1993 to March 1997 at the "Ambulatório de Aborto Recorrente CAISM/UNICAMP". All of them had had three or more consecutive spontaneous abortions and/or two abortions and were 35 years or more old. Methods: the investigation protocol included: couple's karyotype; hysterosalpingography, serial plasma progesterone levels and/or endometrial biopsy; toxoplasmosis, listeriosis, brucelosis, lues and cytomegalovirus serum tests; Chlamydia trachomatis and Mycoplasma hominis cultures of cervical discharge; TSH and thyroid hormone levels; fasting glucose; autoantibody panel, anti-HLA antibody search by microlymphocytotoxicity crossmatch and one-way mixed lymphocyte culture with inhibitor factor detection. Husband's evaluation included: physical evaluation, lues, Chagas' disease, B and C hepatitis and AIDS serum tests, microlymphocytotoxicity crossmatch and one-way mixed lymphocyte culture with inhibitor factor detection. Results: alloimmune etiology was the most frequently found factor (86.3% of studied patients), represented by negative crossmatch and one-way mixed lymphocyte culture with inhibitor factor below 50%. The second most frequently found factor was cervical incompetence (22.8%), followed by hormonal factor (21.2%), mainly represented by luteal insufficiency. Some patients were found to have more than one etiologic factor. Conclusion: the investigation of recurrent spontaneous abortion-associated factors must include alloimmune etiology. Most cases will remain unexplained without this investigation.
Abortion; Antiphospholipid antibodies; Lymphocyte; Cervical incompetence
