Coccidioidomycosis as a complication of pregnancy.

Records of 33 cases of coccidioidomycosis occurring during pregnancy were reviewed. In this group the incidence of dissemination of the disease was considerably greater than the reported incidence of dissemination in all cases of coccidioidomycosis. The incidence of dissemination was higher in the patients who contracted coccidioidomycosis late in pregnancy than it was in those in whom onset of the disease occurred earlier in gestation; but dissemination occurred in all Negro patients in the group, regardless of the time of onset during pregnancy. The chief complicating effect when onset was in the first trimester of pregnancy was a tendency to abortion. In cases in which onset was in the third trimester, the incidence of premature labor was extremely high. There was no evidence of congenital infection in any of the babies, but in one case invasion of the placenta by coccidioidal spherules was observed.