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Small risk of neurological birth defects due to efavirenz confirmed in French cohort
Keith Alcorn, 2013-03-06 03:50:00
A large French study has found an elevated risk of some birth defects in children born to women exposed to some antiretroviral drugs during the first trimester of pregnancy, French researchers reported on 5 March at the 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2013) in Atlanta.
The study found an elevated risk of neurological defects in infants exposed to efavirenz (Sustiva or Stocrin) during the first trimester, and an elevated risk of heart defects in infants exposed to AZT (zidovudine, Retrovir) during the first trimester. The study also found an elevated risk of head and neck defects in infants exposed to either ddI (didanosine, Videx) or 3TC (lamivudine, Epivir) during the first trimester.
However, the number of children born with any specific birth defect apart from a heart defect was very small, and the increase in risk for any specific birth defect amounted was in the region of a two- to three-fold elevation.
Almost all of the associations between specific drugs and types of birth defects were already known, and indeed, the study failed to detect any association between nelfinavir (Viracept) exposure and any elevated risk of birth defect, despite previous reports of an association. Nevertheless, the review of the French Paediatric Cohort is the largest study to date of the potential risks of birth defects attached to specific antiretroviral drugs.
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