Abstract:Objective To evaluate the clinical and laboratory characteristics of listeriosis in patients during pregnancy, and improve the understanding on the disease. Methods Clinical characteristics and laboratory detection results of 18 pregnant women with gestational listeriosis admitted to two hospitals in Shanxi from 2012 to 2023 were analyzed retrospectively. Results Among the 18 pregnant women, 1, 3 and 14 cases developed listeriosis in the early, middle and late pregnancy, respectively (including 2 cases of dichorionic diamniotic twin pregnancy). The main clinical manifestations were fever (n=17, 94.44%), accompanied by vaginal bleeding (n=5, 27.78%), abdominal pain (n=4, 22.22%), and headache (n=2, 11.11%). White blood cell count, neutrophil percentage, and procalcitonin level in peripheral blood of pregnant women all increased. There were 1 spontaneous abortion during early pregnancy, 3 deaths during middle pregnancy, and 10 survival during late pregnancy. All pregnant women reco-vered and were discharged from hospital. Specimens with high isolation rate of Listeria monocytogenes (LM) were uterine secretion (n=11, 61.11%) and whole blood (n=10, 55.55%) of pregnancy women. Among the 17 newborns of 18 pregnant women, LM was isolated from 4 (23.53%) pharyngeal tracheal secretion specimens and 3 (17.65%) whole blood specimens. 10 cases out of 13 revealed chorioamnionitis via pathology examination of placenta. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing results of 15 LM strains showed that the susceptibility rates to ampicillin, compound sulfamethoxazole, and meropenem were all 100%, and the susceptibility rates to penicillin and erythromycin were both 93.33%. Conclusion Listeriosis during pregnancy lacks specific clinical characteristics and is prone to be misdiagnosed. The incidence of adverse pregnancy outcomes is high. The survival rate of fetus in late pregnancy is high. Empirical anti-infection treatment during early pregnancy should cover LM infection.