FRIDAY, March 20 (HealthDay News) -- Pregnant women with inflammatory
bowel disease have an elevated risk of developing adverse pregnancy and maternal
outcomes, according to research published in the March issue of Clinical
Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Geoffrey C. Nguyen, M.D., Ph.D., of the Mount Sinai Hospital, University of
Toronto in Canada, and colleagues analyzed data from the 2005 Nationwide
Inpatient Sample, which indicated an estimated 4.21 million deliveries, of which
3,740 were to women with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.
Women with inflammatory bowel disease had a much higher risk of venous
thromboembolism (adjusted odds ratios, 6.12 for Crohn's disease and 8.44 for
ulcerative colitis), the investigators found. They also had a higher risk of
cesarean delivery (aOR, 1.72 and 1.29, respectively) and protein-calorie
malnutrition (aOR, 20.0 and 60.8, respectively). Women with Crohn's disease were
also more likely to need blood transfusions (aOR, 2.82), the authors note.
"Chronically relapsing conditions such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis
have a dramatic impact on the health of women during pregnancy as evidenced by
the striking differences in relative risks of maternal outcomes between
inflammatory bowel disease and non-inflammatory bowel disease populations. The
findings of the study should serve as an impetus for prospective studies to
evaluate interventions that may reduce antenatal hospitalizations, venous
thromboembolism and malnutrition among pregnant women with inflammatory bowel
disease," Nguyen and colleagues write.
