In recent years there has been an increasing interest in pregnancy and rheumatic diseases, with pursuits in basic research as well as clinical investigation. The impact of immunologic changes necessary to maintain a fetal allograft on diseases of autoimmunity is variable. From the concern in recurrent miscarriages has emerged a rapidly expanding literature on the role of particular antibodies, most notably anti-phospholipid antibodies. Moreover there is overwhelming evidence that maternal antibodies to cytoplasmic ribonucleoproteins are associated with the development of congenital complete heart block in an offspring and other manifestations of passively acquired autoimmunity. These problems exemplify some of the intellectual challenges well suited to an interchange between the medical disciplines of immunology, rheumatology, reproductive endocrinology, perinatology, and neonatology. To date there has not been a conference pulling together all the major investigators in these fields. Important observations have been made in the United States, England, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Mexico, Israel, and other countries, but the investigators have never convened at one site. The main objective of the proposed conference therefore is to provide a forum for those investigators and to promote research collaborations among them. The five specific aims of the conference are: 1) to examine the normal and abnormal physiology and immunoregulatory mechanisms of pregnancy, 2) to examine the effects of pregnancy on specific rheumatic diseases in the mother, 3) to examine the effects of rheumatic diseases on fetal outcome, 4) to apply advances in the biology and pathogenesis of antiphospholipid antibodies in recurrent miscarriage to the identification and management of high risk pregnancies, and 5) to examine a broad range of treatment modalities and their effects in utero and during lactation. For each theme, the forum will include lectures by invited recognized investigators as well as abstracts and presentations of recent work delivered in traditional podium and poster formats. Israel was selected as the site partly because of its easy access to Europe, but primarily because the conference is being officially sponsored by the Israel Society of Rheumatology. The Conference will be open to all medical and scientific personnel with an interest in pregnancy and rheumatic diseases. Plans have been made for publication of the Proceedings in a separate supplemental volume of a rheumatology journal.
