Fetal damage

Similar to enteric viruses, protozoa require a suitable host for replication but can persist within nonhost environments for significant time periods (Sidhu and Toze, 2009). The main source of human protozoan is from direct contact with humans although foodbome sources can also represent a significant vehicle (Sidhu and Toze, 2009 Thompson et al., 2008). All of these human pathogenic protozoa cause diarrhea-like symptoms except Toxoplasma, which causes fetal damage and glandular fever-like syndrome (Dumetre and Darde, 2003). 

Cortisone should be used with caution in pregnancy, especially during the first 14 weeks, as it may give rise to fetal damage. The drug should also be administered with caution to nursing mothers [64],... 

Tamoxifen Increased risk of spontaneous abortion or fetal damage... 

There is also evidence that the mothers of schizophrenics have a higher incidence of obstetric complications. Furthermore, schizophrenics have more soft neurological signs and developmental anomalies associated with fetal damage. All these complications occur more frequently in schizophrenics with enlarged ventricles. 

The existence of chirality in nature is of particular importance in numerous recognition processes, often illustrated by examples detectable by non-spectroscopic methods such as the different orange and lemon odors of R-(+)- and S-(-)-limonene, respectively (Fig. 3) [8]. As such, chiral discrimination is also of considerable consequence in the medical sciences, as often one enantiomer is pharmaceutically active whereas the other may show adverse side effects. A historic example is the anti-emetic activity of one of the enantiomers of thalidomide, while the other can cause fetal damage [9,10]. These considerations highlight the importance of chiral discrimination in the production of biologically active materials, whereas on the other hand, the design of routes to asymmetric synthesis presents an active challenge to synthetic chemists worldwide. 

Allebeck P Olsen J (1998) Alcohol and fetal damage. Alcohol Clin Exp Res, 22(Suppl 7) 329S-332S. 

Side effects that arise as a consequence of a known mechanism of action are plausible and the connection with drug ingestion is simple to recognize. It is more dif cult to detect unwanted effects that arise from an unknown action. Some compelling examples of these include fetal damage after intake of a hypnotic (thalidomide), pulmonary hypertension after appetite depressants, and fibrosis after antimigraine drugs. 

The authors failed to find any other cause for this abnormality and concluded that the excessive dose of pyridostigmine had been responsible for the fetal damage. 

Fetal damage has not been attributed to ethambutol (23). Fetotoxicity... 

De Jonge GA. Vruchtbeschadiging door farmaca. [Fetal damage caused by pharmaceutical agents.] Folia Med Neerl 1965 51 65-72. 

Cisplatin and related compounds cross the placenta and can therefore cause fetal damage. Cisplatin is teratogenic in mice and embryotoxic in mice and rats. The platins should only be used during pregnancy in life-threatening situations. The patient should be informed of the potential hazard to the fetus (263). 

Burton AE, Robinson ET, Harper WF, Bell EJ, Boyd IF. Fetal damage after accidental polio vaccination of an immune mother. J R Coll Gen Pract 1984 34(264) 390-4. 

It has been suggested that in some way, thahdomide interferes with the action of certain of the B vitamins, that as a result of this antagonism fetal damage can occur, and that in the adult there may be a hnk between this effect and the polyneuropathy that thalidomide can cause (193). Thalidomide and its two isoglutamine derivatives caused... 

Fetal damage following intrauterine poisoning was especially pronounced. Affected infants were born with both physical malformations and profound mental retardation. Symptoms resembled cerebral palsy. Several infants were born completely blind. Pathology in these cases involved the cerebral hemispheres to a major extent and microcephaly was found in several instances. Cerebral cortices were not only underdeveloped but their convolutions were also narrowed. The corresponding maternal toxicity in these cases was minimal and rapidly reversible. The observable postnatal effects at the lowest levels of fetal exposure, was psychomotor retardation expressed as delayed behavioral... 

Phenobarbital. The older barbiturate is to be used with caution in patients with patent liver or respiratory symptoms. Phenobarbital can cause fetal damage when administered to pregnant women. 

I look at many possible causes of fetal damage in this book, but give particular emphasis to man-made environmental toxins, be they chemical pollutants in our air, water, and land, or substances in the consumer marketplace, legal and otherwise. The effects of these toxins are often connected to more than one type of fetal damage. Prenatal exposure to lead, for example, is connected to postnatal occurrences of lower IQ, ADHD, and schizophrenia, usually in different individuals. Prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke, as another example, is connected to a host of effects with adverse postnatal consequences as well. The effects of both sorts of toxins can also be related to other fetal impacts, which in turn are often connected to important social... 

But after that report interest apparently withered. From the beginning of modern medicine in the early nineteenth century to 1973, nothing but sporadic clinical reports appeared suggesting a link between maternal alcoholism and fetal damage. With the Lancet papers, interest in the connection increased, such that the existence of FAS began to raise questions about the role that any degree of alcohol consumption might play in fetal abnormalities. 

CHRONIC HEALTH RISKS fetal damage may occur from exposure of the mother to tetramethyl lead damage to kidneys may cause effects on cardiovascular system and central nervous system. 

The major features of the IDD effects on brain function arise from fetal damage (neurological cretinism) or hypothyroidism at various stages of life - fetus, neonate, juvenile and adult (Table 62.3). 

Unlike warfarin, heparin is safe for anticoagulant therapy during pregnancy (134). Although warfarin is known to cause serious fetal malformations when used in pregnancy, heparin does not cross the placental barrier and has shown no tendency to induce fetal damage. Furthermore, heparin does not increase fetal mortality or prematurity. To minimize the risk of postpartum hemorrhage, it is recommended that heparin therapy be withdrawn 24 hours before delivery. 

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