Abortion, induced

F. Role in therapy According to Micromedex, oxytocin is routinely used for the induction of labor at term and postpartum for the control of uterine bleeding. Oxytocin is not the drug of choice for induction of labor for abortion. Oxytocin infusion has been used following prostaglandin or hypertonic abortifacients to shorten the induction to abortion time when inducing second-trimester abortion, inducing abortion when a patient has failed to respond to the abortifacient, or to induce abortion after membranes have ruptured. 

Naproxen delays parturition in animals and an unacceptable 20% incidence of uterine haemorrhage was observed when it was used to relieve plain in mid-trimester abortions induced by hypertonic saline (131). 

Physiological responses to prostaglandins encompass a variety of effects Some prostaglandins relax bronchial muscle others contract it Some stimulate uterine con tractions and have been used to induce therapeutic abortions PGEj dilates blood vessels and lowers blood pressure it inhibits the aggregation of platelets and offers promise as a drug to reduce the formation of blood clots... 

There appear also to be toxic effects. In animals, nitrous oxide has been shown to inactivate methionine synthetase which prevents the conversion of deoxyuridine to thymidine and thus has the potential for inducing megaloblastic anemia, leukopenia, and teratogenicity (44—46). A variety of epidemiologic surveys suggest positive correlations between exposure to nitrous oxide and spontaneous abortion in dental assistants (47). 

Topical apphcation of ara-HxMP, C2QH23N40gP, significantly inhibited the development of keratitis-induced HSV-1, HSV-2, or vaccinia vims in the eyes of rabbits. Ara-HxMP also significantly controlled the development of HSV-1 or vaccinia viral-induced encephaUtis in mice and was also active in preventing equine abortion viral deaths in hamsters. Clinical trials with ara-HxMP have not yet been reported. 

Another approach to pregnancy termination has been the utilization of progesterone synthesis inhibitors. These compounds block production of progesterone by the corpus luteum and the early placenta. When adrninistered with a prostaglandin, their use can result in medically induced abortions. 

C. Tiet2e and S. K. Henshaw, Induced Abortion A. World Keview The Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York and Washington, D.C., 1986, p. 29. 

OA were aborted in 2003 due to the development of mild to moderate liver fibrosis in dogs treated for 9 months with high doses of pralnacasan. This was in spite of recent evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of pralnacasan treatment in the acute dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis model, which resembles Crohn s disease (CD) characteristics, and in transient ischemia induced brain damage. 

Prevent isoimmunization of Rh (D)-negative women at the time of spontaneous or induced abortion... 

Listeria monocytogenes, a bacterium that, when transmitted to humans, causes listeriosis. Listeriosis is characterized by flu-like symptoms, but can cause swelling of the brain and induce abortions. 

Stehn, R.A. and Jannett, F.J. (1981) Male-induced abortion in various microtine rodents. J. Mammal. 62, 369-372. 

Practically all of the mercuric compounds are teratogenic in animals [241,242], Mercuric chloride thus induced cataracts and deaths in rat embryos [243]. In the human, mercuric chloride has been related to abortion [244, 245], possibly through the inactivation of placental sulphydryl enzymes. 

Matsuzawa, T., Nakata, M., Goto, I. and Tsushima, M. (1981). Dietary deprivation induces fetal loss and abortions in rabbits. Toxicology 22 255-259. 

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