Hydrops fetalis associated with SARS-CoV-2 placentitis and de novo CDK13 mutation: an integrated genetic and histological analysis
Keywords:
hydrops fetalis, pregnancy complications, SARS-CoV-2, CDK13 mutation, placenta diseasesAbstract
We present a case of a 33-year-old woman with a diagnosis of hydrops fetalis at 33 weeks gestation. The histopathological examination of the placenta deposes for SARS-CoV-2 placentitis and genetic analysis reveals evidence of a de novo heterozygous mutation of the CDK13 mutation gene in the newborn.
This report presents a case of COVID-19 during pregnancy associated with SARS-CoV-2 placentitis and highlights the characteristic histopathology of this recently described condition, which can lead to hydrops. On the other hand, this is the first reported case of hydrops fetalis in a fetus carrier of a pathogenic CDK13 gene variant. Moreover, since the reported patients with CDK13 mutations and prenatal complications we cannot exclude the causality or at least the contribution of this variant in generating the hydrops
References
1. Vanaparthy R, Mahdy H. Hydrops fetalis. StatPearls. 2022 Sep 26. PMID: 33085361.
2. Wang CL, Liu YY, Wu CH. Impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy. Int J Med Sci. 2021;18(3):763-767. doi: 10.7150/ijms.49923.
3. Linehan L, O'Donoghue K, Dineen S, White J, Higgins JR, Fitzgerald B. SARS-CoV-2 placentitis: an uncommon complication of maternal COVID-19. Placenta. 2021;104:261-266. doi: 10.1016/j.placenta.2021.01.012.
4. Bostwick B. CDK13-related disorder. GeneReviews. 2019 Jan 31. PMID: 30702837.
5. Gibbs M, Poulin A, Xi Y, Hashemi B. A prenatal presentation of CDK13-related disorder with a novel pathogenic variant. Case Rep Genet. 2023;2023:3437706. doi: 10.1155/2023/3437706.
6. Schwartz DA, Avvad-Portari E, Babál P, et al. Placental tissue destruction and insufficiency from COVID-19 causes stillbirth and neonatal death from hypoxic-ischemic injury. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2022;146(6):660-676. doi: 10.5858/arpa.2022-0029-SA.
7. Zanin V, Driul L, Zoletto S, et al. Intrauterine fetal death in a COVID-positive pregnant woman. Minerva Obstet Gynecol. 2024;76(2):205-210. doi: 10.23736/S2724-606X.22.05149-1.
8. Hcini N, Maamri F, Picone O, et al. Maternal, fetal and neonatal outcomes of large series of SARS-CoV-2 positive pregnancies in peripartum period: a single-center prospective comparative study. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2021;257:11-18. doi: 10.1016/j.ejogrb.2020.11.068.
9. Bernier E, Brien ME, Girard S. Pregnant individuals with uncomplicated pregnancies display pro-inflammatory immune changes when exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Am J Reprod Immunol. 2024;91:e13828. doi: 10.1111/aji.13828.
10. Popescu DE, Cioca A, Muresan C, et al. A case of COVID-19 pregnancy complicated with hydrops fetalis and intrauterine death. Medicina (Kaunas). 2021;57(7):667. doi: 10.3390/medicina57070667.
11. Gubbari C, Govindarajan V, Reddy C, Raman P, Supriya M. Newborn with nonimmune hydrops secondary to fetal COVID-19 myocarditis. Indian J Pediatr. 2022;89(1):99. doi: 10.1007/s12098-021-03950-y.
12. Krasniqi F, Pistulli E, Gashi A, Krasniqi I. Non-immunologic hydrops fetalis and coronavirus disease (COVID-19) - a case report. Rom J Pediatr. 2021;70(1):75-79. doi: 10.37897/RJP.2021.1.14.
13. Garcia-Manau P, Garcia-Ruiz I, Rodo C, Sulleiro E, et al. Fetal transient skin edema in two pregnant women with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Obstet Gynecol. 2020;136(5):1016-1020. doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000004059.
14. Martínez-Varea A, Desco-Blay J, Monfort S, Hueso-Villanueva M, Perales-Marín A, Diago-Almela VJ. Transitory fetal skin edema in a pregnant patient with a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection. Case Rep Obstet Gynecol. 2021;2021:5552877. doi: 10.1155/2021/5552877.
15. Shende P, Gaikwad P, Gandhewar M, et al. Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in the first trimester placenta leading to transplacental transmission and fetal demise from an asymptomatic mother. Hum Reprod. 2021;36(4):899-906. doi: 10.1093/humrep/deaa367.
16. Redline RW, Ravishankar S, Bagby CM, Saab ST, Zarei S. Four major patterns of placental injury: a stepwise guide for understanding and implementing the 2016 Amsterdam consensus. Mod Pathol. 2021;34(6):1074-1092. doi: 10.1038/s41379-021-00747-4.
17. Chen S, Francioli LC, Goodrich JK, et al. A genomic mutational constraint map using variation in 76,156 human genomes. Nature. 2024;625:92-100. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06045-0.
18. Rouxel F, Relator R, Kerkhof J, et al. CDK13-related disorder: report of a series of 18 previously unpublished individuals and description of an epigenetic signature. Genet Med. 2022;24(5):1096-1107. doi: 10.1016/j.gim.2021.12.016.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Valentina Zanin, Giada Piccinin, Flavio Faletra, Catia Mio, Marta Angelini, Maria Orsaria, Carla Pittini, Lorenza Driul

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Transfer of Copyright and Permission to Reproduce Parts of Published Papers.
Authors retain the copyright for their published work. No formal permission will be required to reproduce parts (tables or illustrations) of published papers, provided the source is quoted appropriately and reproduction has no commercial intent. Reproductions with commercial intent will require written permission and payment of royalties.

