Cyclosporine therapy during pregnancy in a patient with β-thalassemia major and autoimmune haemolytic anemia: a case report and review of the literature

Recent advances in the management of hemoglobinopathies offer an improved potential for safe pregnancy with favourable outcome in patients with β-thalassemia major. Autoimmune diseases that are common in women at reproductive age might be fulminant and hardly manageable in pregnant women with thalassemia. Thus immunosuppressant drugs like cyclosporine A could be necessary in order to maintain good maternal and foetal health. We present a case report of a 35-year-old woman with β-thalassemia major, splenectomy, autoimmune hemolytic anemia and insulin treated diabetes mellitus who was treated with cyclosporine A during her pregnancy, and delivered a healthy male infant. First line therapy with steroids was ineffective, due to deregulation of diabetes mellitus.