[Habitual abortion. A review of etiology, diagnosis and treatment with emphasis on immunonological factors].

Almost 1% of women who attempt pregnancy will experience recurrent miscarriage. The majority of traditionally accepted causes of recurrent miscarriage lack proper documentation and the evidence for the majority of treatments is sparse. An increased level of midfollicular phase luteinizing hormone seems to be associated with some cases of recurrent miscarriage. Many autoantibodies are found with increased frequency in women with recurrent miscarriage, and they seem to be associated with an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcome. This may indicate that the autoantibodies per se or associated immunological phenomena are risk factors for the condition. Polygenically determined immunological phenomena seem to play an important role. Treatment of recurrent miscarriage by anticoagulation, allogeneic lymphocyte immunization or intravenous immunoglobulin is under evaluation in controlled trials.