[The management of bronchial asthma during pregnancy--Hungarian experiences]

The prevalence of bronchial asthma is 4-8% among pregnant women. The complications, which threaten the asthmatic pregnancies according to the literature, are the following: spontaneous abortion, diabetes mellitus, caesarean delivery, pre-eclampsia, low gestational weight, neonatal icterus.

The aim of the study was a retrospective analysis of the data of asthmatic pregnant patients managed between 2000 and 2004, with a special consideration on the treatment and gynecologic complications.

The data of 53 persistent asthmatic patients--who had already undergone delivery--were collected. All of them were treated according to the guidelines issued in 2000 by the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: the inhalative corticosteroid budesonide, the long-acting beta-agonist formoterol or salmeterol and the short-acting beta-agonist terbutaline were used.

The mean peak expiratory flow of the asthmatic pregnant patients was 71 +/- 16% of predicted, and the mean partial arterial oxygen tension 96 +/- 9 mmHg (means +/- SE). 10 of the 53 patients had cesarean delivery, 3 developed pre-eclampsia, 1 diabetes mellitus. The mean gestational age was 38.84 +/- 2.17 weeks and the weight of newborns 3132 +/- 604 g. The hospitalization was prolonged due to the infants' hyperbilirubinaemia in 3 cases. No congenital malformations or spontaneous abortions were detected.

Based on the results of this retrospective study it can be concluded, that bronchial asthma slightly decreases the weight of newborns. The appropriate treatment of asthma during pregnancy resulted that the prevalence of gynecologic complications did not exceed the prevalence observed in the normal population--without increasing the risk of congenital malformations.