Celiac disease during pregnancy may increase the risk of heart and urinary birth defects

Reuters Health - 02/09/2020 - In pregnant women, celiac disease (CD) - particularly when undetected or untreated - may increase of the risk of heart and urinary birth defects, researchers say. "It is premature at this point to talk about screening all pregnant women for CD, especially since the associations in our data were not strong and CD was associated with only a few types of birth defects," Dr. Nathalie Auger of the University of Montreal, Quebec, told Reuters Health by email." "Testing can be considered for women with gastrointestinal symptoms," she said. "Ideally, women with a positive antibody test for CD should start a gluten-free diet before the 12th week of pregnancy to be effective. This is because most birth defects form between four and 12 weeks of pregnancy." Dr. Auger and colleagues analyzed discharge summaries for more than two million infants born between 1989 and 2016 in Quebec to determine whether CD was present during prenatal follow-up,...

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Posted on 2 September, 20208 September, 2020