Evaluating Clinical Parameters of COVID-19 in Pregnancy (COpregVID)

Coronavirus infection, also known as COVID-19, has become a global pandemic with over 3 million cases and 250,000 deaths worldwide. Coronaviruses (CoV) belong to a family of viruses that predominately infect mammals and birds, affecting their lungs, intestinal tract, liver and nervous systems. Prior to the discovery of the current novel coronavirus strain (SARS-CoV-2), there were six different strains that are known to infect humans, which includes the virus that caused the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) pandemic in 2002. In humans, the majority of severe illness from SARs and COVID-19 is due to inflammation of the lungs and pneumonia. Pregnancy poses a significantly increased risk of viral pneumonia and during SARS more pregnant women required intensive care and breathing support, and the proportion of deaths was higher when compared to non-pregnant adults. Furthermore, kidney failure and development of abnormal blood clotting disorders, which occurs during severe infection, is more common in pregnancy and the associated changes in blood vessels extend to the placentas of infected pregnant women, thus potentially affecting the fetus. This makes pregnant women affected by the virus at high risk of developing severe complications. Fortunately, there have been a number of biomarkers identified that are associated with illness severity. These include, specialised white blood cells, blood clotting cells and constituents, as well as other measures of heart and kidney function. We propose that these biomarkers are important correlates of clinical disease severity and prognosis in pregnant and postnatal women. This knowledge has the potential to help clinicians during this pandemic to better manage and care for their patients.