Fetal Growth and Adverse Birth Outcomes in Women Receiving Prescriptions for Acetaminophen During Pregnancy

Ane Marie Thulstrup; Henrik Toft Sørensen; Gunnar Lauge Nielsen; Louise Andersen; Dorte Barrett; Hendrik Vilstrup; Jørn Olsen; null The EuroMap Study Group

doi:10.1055/s-2007-993879

American Journal of Perinatology, Table of Contents

Am J Perinatol 1999; 16(7): 321-326
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-993879

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Fetal Growth and Adverse Birth Outcomes in Women Receiving Prescriptions for Acetaminophen During Pregnancy

Ane Marie Thulstrup¹ ^, ² , Henrik Toft Sørensen¹ ^, ² , Gunnar Lauge Nielsen³ , Louise Andersen¹ , Dorte Barrett¹ , Hendrik Vilstrup¹ , Jørn Olsen¹ , The EuroMap Study Group⁴

¹Department of Medicine V and The Danish Epidemiology Science Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark
²The Danish Epidemiology Science Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark;
³Department of Medicine M, Aalborg Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark.
⁴Henrik Toft Sørensen, Jørn Olsen, Andrew Czeizel, Gunnar Lauge Nielsen, Lolkje De Jong, Lorentz Irgens, Ulf Bergman, Charlotte Olesen, Flemming Hald Steffensen, Lars Pedersen, Rolv T. Lie, and Corinne de Vries.

Abstract

ABSTRACT

We studied the association between acetaminophen exposure during pregnancy and the prevalence of congenital abnormalities and fetal growth. Our study included 123 women who had received a prescription of acetaminophen during pregnancy and/or 30 days before conception and 13,329 controls who did not receive any prescription at all. We found more malformations among those who received a prescription with an odds ratio of 2.3 (95% Cl 1.0-5.4), but the type of malformations did not indicate a causal link. When restricting the study to first time pregnancies, we identified 58 women who received a prescription of acetaminophen during pregnancy and 30 days before conception and 7472 controls. We found no excess risk of malformation [OR = 0.7 (95% Cl 0.1-5.5)], and no evidence that acetaminophen should influence fetal growth.

Keywords

Acetaminophen - pregnancy - congenital malformations - epidemiology

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