This is the second of a two-part series on the use of medication during pregnancy and lactation. Pregnancy risk factors together with an increased incidence of chronic diseases and the rise in mean maternal age predict an increase in medication use during gestation. However, as highlighted in the first installment of this series, relatively few medications have specifically been tested for safe...

Exposure to various medications and medical conditions during pregnancy is often inevitable. Most of these exposures do not carry an elevated risk of congenital malformations. Nevertheless, misperceptions of the risks associated with different exposures in pregnancy are common and may potentially lead to wrong decisions. Unrealistically high maternal teratogenic risk perception may lead to abru...

metronidazole is used to treat trichomoniasis, bacterial vaginosis, and other diseases. there are controversy aspects about its teratogenicity. a teratogenic agent can alter morphology or subsequent function of the fetus. the aim of this study was to examine an alternative method for the recognition of the mechanism or the bimolecular potential changes in mice fetus caused by metronidazole usin...

This investigation began as an attempt to protect chick embryos from the teratogenic effects of hypoxia by means of exogenously applied calcium pantothenate. The attempt was not only a failure, but it appeared that the compound alone was highly teratogenic. Since it was disturbing to consider that a vitamin, in low dosage, was teratogenic, the phenomenon was studied further by injecting equival...

Certain short-chain carboxylic acids (SCCA) appear to share a common teratogenic potential, although the structural requirements for activity remain obscure. By using a whole rat embryo culture model system, several biochemical processes have been examined, either as potential initial sites of teratogenic action or as early steps in the pathway to malformation. Valproate, methoxyacetate, and bu...

Nitrofen (2,4-dichloro-4'-nitrodiphenyl ether) is an herbicide with potent teratogenic activity in rats. When administered at doses as low as 0.15 mg/kg/day during organogenesis, abnormal development of the heart, kidneys, diaphragm, and lung occurs. The specific pattern of visceral malformations produced in the absence of overt maternal toxicity or embryolethality/cytotoxicity suggest that the...

The effect of L-glutamic acid on the embryolethal and teratogenic action of trypan blue was investigated in Wistar albino rats. L-glutamic acid was either incorporated into the diet, from gestation day 2 to day 20, or suspended in sesame oil and administered by gavage, from gestation day 6 to day 10. The day of finding sperm in the vaginal smear was designated day 0 of pregnancy. A teratogenic ...

The occurrence of vaginal clear cell adenocarcinoma in young women following exposure in utero to diethylstilbestrol (DES) is now well documented. In addition to this carcinogenic potential. DES has been shown to be teratogenic. In females, the DES-related malformations include vaginal adenosis, transverse ridges of the vagina or cervix and uterine abnormalities. Although no neoplasms have been...

Forty years on from its worldwide withdrawal, thalidomide is currently undergoing a remarkable renaissance as a novel and powerful immunomodulatory agent. Over the last decade it has been found to be active in a wide variety of inflammatory and malignant disorders where conventional therapies have failed. Recently, considerable progress has been made in elucidating its complex mechanisms of act...

statistics have shown that the incidence of miscarriage among nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologists who were pregnant before being em­ployed was 10% while those who were pregnant during their employment were 20%. this was attributed to the teratogenic effect of anesthetics agents used in the operating room on the fetus. today with the use of special askrog valve, 90% of the anesthetic gases ...