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Lithium Use in Pregnancy and the Risk of Cardiac Malformations.

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Published:7th Jun 2017

Author: Patorno E, Huybrechts KF, Bateman BT, Cohen JM, Desai RJ, Mogun H et al.

Source: The New England Journal of Medicine

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Ref.:N Engl J Med. 2017 Jun 8;376(23):2245-2254.

DOI:10.1056/NEJMoa1612222

Lithium Use in Pregnancy and the Risk of Cardiac Malformations

Background: There has been concern that exposure to lithium early in pregnancy may be associated with a marked increase in the risk of Ebstein's anomaly (a right ventricular outflow tract obstruction defect) in infants and overall congenital cardiac defects, but data are conflicting and limited.

Methods: We conducted a cohort study involving 1,325,563 pregnancies in women who were enrolled in Medicaid and who delivered a live-born infant between 2000 and 2010. We examined the risk of cardiac malformations among infants exposed to lithium during the first trimester as compared with unexposed infants and, in secondary analyses, with infants exposed to another commonly used mood stabilizer, lamotrigine. Risk ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated with control for psychiatric and medical conditions, medications, and other potential confounders.

Results: Cardiac malformations were present in 16 of the 663 infants exposed to lithium (2.41%), 15,251 of the 1,322,955 nonexposed infants (1.15%), and 27 of the 1945 infants exposed to lamotrigine (1.39%). The adjusted risk ratio for cardiac malformations among infants exposed to lithium as compared with unexposed infants was 1.65 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02 to 2.68). The risk ratio was 1.11 (95% CI, 0.46 to 2.64) for a daily dose of 600 mg or less, 1.60 (95% CI, 0.67 to 3.80) for 601 to 900 mg, and 3.22 (95% CI, 1.47 to 7.02) for more than 900 mg. The prevalence of right ventricular outflow tract obstruction defects was 0.60% among lithium-exposed infants versus 0.18% among unexposed infants (adjusted risk ratio, 2.66; 95% CI, 1.00 to 7.06). Results were similar when lamotrigine-exposed infants were used as the reference group.

Conclusions: Maternal use of lithium during the first trimester was associated with an increased risk of cardiac malformations, including Ebstein's anomaly; the magnitude of this effect was smaller than had been previously postulated. (Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.).

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