title: Use of corticosteroids in early pregnancy is not associated with risk of oral clefts and other congenital malformations in offspring.
abstract: Corticosteroids are commonly used to treat inflammatory diseases. There is conflicting evidence regarding the association of corticosteroid use in pregnancy and congenital malformations in offspring. We conducted a prevalence study of 83,043 primiparous women who gave birth to a live-born singleton in northern Denmark, in 1999-2009. Through medical registries, we identified prescriptions for corticosteroids, congenital malformations, and covariates. Furthermore, we summarized the literature on this topic. Overall, 1449 women (1.7%) used inhaled or oral corticosteroids from 30 days before conception throughout the first trimester. Oral cleft in the offspring was recorded for 1 of the users (0.08%) and 145 of the nonusers (0.2%), prevalence odds ratio (OR) 0.47 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.07-3.34]. The prevalence OR for congenital malformations overall was 1.02 (95% CI, 0.79-1.32). According to published studies, the use of corticosteroids in early pregnancy was associated with congenital malformations overall with relative estimates ranging from 0.8 (95% CI, 0.4-1.7) to 2.1 (95% CI, 0.5-9.6). For oral clefts, the ORs ranged from 0.6 (95% CI, 0.2-1.7) to 5.2 (95% CI, 1.5-17.1). We found no evidence of an association between use of corticosteroids in early pregnancy and risk of congenital malformations in offspring.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark; and 2Department of Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Anne-Mette
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Bay Bjørn
authors.forename: Vera
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ehrenstein
authors.forename: Heidi Holmager
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Hundborg
authors.forename: Ellen Aagaard
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Nohr
authors.forename: Henrik Toft
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Sørensen
authors.forename: Mette
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nørgaard
mesh_terms: D000014:Abnormalities, Drug-Induced / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002971:Cleft Lip / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011247:Pregnancy; D011261:Pregnancy Trimester, First; D015995:Prevalence; D012042:Registries; D012306:Risk
chemical_list: D005938:Glucocorticoids