Teratogenic evaluation of drugs used by pregnant patients with gastrointestinal system diseases

Abstract

Aim: Drug use may be necessary in pregnant women due to chronic diseases or digestive disorders. However, safety of the use of many medications during pregnancy remains limited. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety of digestive system drugs during pregnancy. Material and Methods: In this observational study, we collected data of pregnant women who used gastrointestinal agents between 2014 and 2018. Data regarding the medications, exposure to other agents and co-morbidities were documented. Our Teratology Information Service assessed the teratogenic risk of drugs. To investigate the pregnancy outcomes, a follow-up was conducted on the women after delivery to obtain whether there had been any major and/or minor congenital malformations and/or adverse neurodevelopmental effects in the infant. Results: Twelve pregnant women (age 27-34 years), whose gestational age were between 4 and 24 weeks at admission time, were followed up. Among patients, one woman with ulcerative colitis used azathioprine; two women with hepatitis B using tenofovir; three women with nausea and abdominal pain used metoclopramide, hyoscine, ondansetron; six women with dyspepsia and gastritis used alginic acid, antacids, lansoprazole, rabeprazole, pantoprazole, trimebutine, alverine and pancreatin. After delivery, no congenital anomalies were detected. Two infants had low birth weights for gestational age, and one was born preterm. Conclusion: Data in our study contributes to the literature on safety of gastrointestinal system medications in pregnancy. This permits decreasing the number of potential elective terminations related to the concerns about digestive system drugs.