Maternal corticosteroid use and orofacial clefts.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to examine whether maternal corticosteroid use during pregnancy is associated with delivering an infant with an orofacial cleft.


METHODS
This study included data on deliveries from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study, which is a population-based case-control study. Exposures were assessed by telephone interviews for mothers of 1141 cases with cleft lip +/- cleft palate (CLP), 628 with cleft palate (CP), and 4143 controls.


RESULTS
Mothers of 33 infants with CLP (2.9%), mothers of 6 infants with CP (1.0%), and 72 control subjects (1.7%) reported corticosteroid use from 4 weeks before through 12 weeks after conception. The crude odds ratio for "any" vs "no" use was 1.7 (95% CI, 1.1-2.6) for CLP and 0.5 (0.2-1.3) for CP. When analyzed by route of administration and medication components, odds ratios for CLP tended to be elevated, and odds ratios for CP tended to be close to 1.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest a moderately increased risk of CLP among women who use corticosteroids during early pregnancy.
March of Dimes Foundation/California Department of Health Services, California Birth Defects Monitoring Program, Berkeley, CA, USA. SCarmichael@marchofdimes.com
Suzan L
SL
Carmichael
Gary M
GM
Shaw
Chen
C
Ma
Martha M
MM
Werler
Sonja A
SA
Rasmussen
Edward J
EJ
Lammer
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002971:Cleft Lip / Q000139:chemically induced*; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000139:chemically induced*; D005260:Female; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects
D005938:Glucocorticoids