Study of Hepatic Schistosomiasis in pregnancy

Schistosomiasis (bilharziasis) is caused by trematodes of the genus schistosoma. About 200 million persons are infected worldwide with approximately 200000 deaths annually.Schistosomiasis is complicated by specific end organ pathology including hepatic fibrosis and malfunction, urinary obstruction, bladder cancer and other lesions.As schistosomal infection causes chronic blood loss, consumes erythrocytes and impair iron status, in addition to cause serious end organ damage. Depleted iron status and iron deficinecy anemia are commonly found to affect adversly the course of pregnancy and birth outcome.Jaundice may be peculair to pregnancy, such as acute fatty liver, cholestatic jaundice or jaundice complicating toxaemis. The jaundice may be an intercurrent one affecting the pregnant woman, such as viral hepatitis or gallstones.Liver test abnormalities complicate 1 in 10 prengnancies. During a normal pregnancy, the liver usually functions well. Serum concentrations of most enzymes produced in the liver such as aspartate aminotrasferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), glutamyltransferase (GGT) and 5-nucleotidase are normal throughout pregnancy. One exception is alkaline phosphatase (ALP) which progressively rises in the latter half of pregnancy.Pregnancy itself represents an extra burden to nearly all systems of the body and is associated with changes in every system to accommodate for it.In short, it can be said that pregnancy has a profound effect on a previously present liver disease as it presents a stress condition and any chronic disease of the liver represents a special case that needs special medical care to complete pregnancy occurring with it or it may be mandatory to terminate pregnancy to save the life of mother.