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A population-based case-control teratologic study of oral oxytetracycline treatment during pregnancy
1WHO Collaborating Centre for the Community Control of Hereditary Diseases, Department of Human Genetics and Teratology, National Centre for Epidemiology, Budapest, Hungary.
Objective:
To study human teratogenic potential of oral oxytetracycline treatment during pregnancy.
Materials And Methods:
The pair analysis of cases with congenital abnormalities and matched healthy controls in the large population-based dataset of the Hungarian Case-Control Surveillance of Congenital Abnormalities, 1980-1996.
Results:
Of 38,151 pregnant women who had babies without any defects in the study period (control group), 214 (0.6%) were treated with oral oxytetracycline. Of 22,865 pregnant women who had offspring with congenital abnormalities, 216 (0.9%) were treated with oxytetracycline (OR with 95%: 1.7, 1.4-2.0). Different approaches in the study showed a higher rate of medically documented oxytetracycline treatment in the second months of gestation in neural-tube defects (OR with 95%: 9.7, 2.0-47.1), cleft palate (17.2, 3.5-83.5) and multiple congenital abnormalities (12.9, 3.8-44.3) including mainly the combination of neural-tube defects and cardiovascular malformations.
Conclusion:
Treatment with oxytetracycline during the second months of pregnancy presents a teratogenic risk to the fetus.