
Affect of Seizures During Gestation on Pregnancy Outcomes in Women with Epilepsy
Author(s) -
Harden Cynthia
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
epilepsy currents
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.415
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 1535-7511
pISSN - 1535-7597
DOI - 10.1111/j.1535-7511.2009.01349.x
Subject(s) - medicine , pregnancy , epilepsy , birth certificate , odds ratio , obstetrics , low birth weight , pediatrics , gestation , small for gestational age , population , birth weight , gestational age , cohort study , psychiatry , genetics , environmental health , biology
Affect of Seizures During Gestation on Pregnancy Outcomes in Women with Epilepsy. Chen YH, Chiou HY, Lin HC, Lin HL. Arch Neurol 2009;66(8):979–984. OBJECTIVE: To assess whether seizures in women with epilepsy during pregnancy contribute to adverse pregnancy outcomes. DESIGN: A retrospective cross‐sectional study. SETTING: Taiwan. PATIENTS: This study linked 2 nationwide population‐based data sets: Taiwan's birth certificate registry and the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Data set. A total of 1,016 women with epilepsy were selected who had single births from 2001 to 2003 and who had been diagnosed with epilepsy within 2 years prior to their index delivery, together with 8,128 matched women without chronic disease as a comparison cohort. Women with epilepsy were further stratified into 2 groups for analysis: women who did and did not have seizures during pregnancy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Low‐birth‐weight infants, preterm delivery, and infants who are small for gestational age (SGA). RESULTS: Compared with women without epilepsy, epileptic seizures during pregnancy were independently associated with a 1.36‐fold (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01–1.88), 1.63‐fold (95% CI, 1.21–2.19), and 1.37‐fold (95% CI, 1.09–1.70) increased risk of low‐birth‐weight infants, preterm delivery, and SGA, respectively, after adjusting for family income and parental and infant characteristics. Further, the risk of SGA increased significantly (odds ratio, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.01–1.84) for women with seizures during pregnancy compared with women with epilepsy who did not have seizures during pregnancy. CONCLUSION: We suggest preventing seizures during pregnancy as an essential step to reduce risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes.