The use of antirheumatic disease drugs during pregnancy.
Many connective tissue diseases occur more frequently in women, the female:male ratio for systemic lupus erythematosus is 9:1 and for rheumatoid arthritis is 3:1. These diseases frequently afflict young women, many of whom wish to become mothers. While some diseases (for example, rheumatoid arthritis) generally improve during pregnancy, other immune-mediated diseases may be exacerbated by pregnancy, putting both the mother and fetus at risk and making control of maternal disease a top priority. This review examines the current literature pertaining to the use of antirheumatic drugs during pregnancy, including aspirin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, corticosteroids, anticoagulants, the 4-aminoquinoline antimalarial drugs, immunomodulating drugs, antimetabolite drugs and other agents including sulfasazine and anticytokine therapy.
University of Connecticut Health Center, Division of Rheumatology MC5353, 263 Farmington Ave, Farmington, CT 06030, USA. Parke@nso.uchc.edu.
S M
SM
Hussain
Ann L
AL
Parke