Monitoring of maternal drug use and infant congenital malformations. Does loratadine cause hypospadias?

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Källén, Bengt^; | Olausson, Petra Otterblad

Affiliations: Tornblad Institute, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden | Centre for Epidemiology, National Board of Health, Stockholm, Sweden

Note: [] Address for correspondence: Professor Bengt Källén, Tornblad Institute, Biskopsgatan 7, SE‐223 62 Lund, Sweden. Tel.: +46 46 222 7536; Fax: +46 46 222 4226; E‐mail: [email protected].

Abstract: The Swedish Medical Birth Registry was used for the monitoring of maternal drug usage in early pregnancy and the occurrence of congenital malformations in infants. An association between maternal use of the anti‐allergic drug loratadine and infant hypospadias was noticed. Continued monitoring suggested that this was probably not a chance phenomenon, but a biological mechanism which could explain the association is unknown. Comparisons with the outcome after exposure for other anti‐allergic drugs suggested a drug specificity.

Keywords: Congenital malformations, hypospadias, loratadine, monitoring

Journal: International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine, vol. 14, no. 3-4, pp. 115-119, 2001