ArticleDrug safety2018
Beta-Blocker Use in Pregnancy and Risk of Specific Congenital Anomalies: A European Case-Malformed Control Study.
Article in Drug safety, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 59 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinical practice guideline on pregnancy and renal disease.BMC nephrology · 2019Guideline
- Safety and Effectiveness of Pain Medications for Migraine Management During Pregnancy and Lactation.Paediatric drugs · 2026Review
- The EUROmediCAT Network and Databases: A Resource for Pharmacovigilance in Pregnancy.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2026Article
- Antiretroviral drug exposure in pregnancy and risk of congenital anomalies: a European case/non-case malformed study.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2025Article
- Pregnancy outcomes in women with mitral valve stenosis: 10-year experience of a tertiary care center.Archives of gynecology and obstetrics · 2025Article
- Article
- Using Twitter Data for Cohort Studies of Drug Safety in Pregnancy: Proof-of-concept With β-Blockers.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
- [Cardiac arrhythmias in pregnancy : Epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and treatment options].Herzschrittmachertherapie & Elektrophysiologie · 2021Review
- Atrial fibrillation during pregnancy: a 9-month period with limited options.Herzschrittmachertherapie & Elektrophysiologie · 2021Review
- β-Blocker Use in Pregnancy and the Risk for Congenital Malformations: An International Cohort Study.Annals of internal medicine · 2018Observational
- Maternal antihypertensive medication use and selected birth defects in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study.Birth defects research · 2018Article
- Metformin exposure in first trimester of pregnancy and risk of all or specific congenital anomalies: exploratory case-control study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2018Article
- Impact of Treatment with Metformin in Comparison with Insulin in Gestational Diabetes in Libyan Population a Randomized Controlled Study.Journal of pharmacy & bioallied sciencesArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
22 authors at 16 institutions in 12 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe prevalence of chronic hypertension is increasing in pregnant women. Beta-blockers are among the most prevalent anti-hypertensive agents used in early pregnancy.
objectiveThe objective of this study was to investigate whether first-trimester use of beta-blockers increases the risk of specific congenital anomalies in offspring.
methodsA population-based case-malformed control study was conducted in 117,122 registrations of congenital anomalies from 17 European Concerted Action on Congenital Anomalies and Twins (EUROCAT) registries participating in EUROmediCAT with data for all or part of the period between 1995 and 2013. Associations previously reported in the literature (signals) were tested and an exploratory analysis was performed to identify new signals. Odds ratios of exposure to any beta-blocker or to a beta-blocker subgroup were calculated for each signal anomaly compared with two control groups (non-chromosomal, non-signal anomalies and chromosomal anomalies). The exploratory analyses were performed for each non-signal anomaly compared with all the other non-signal anomalies.
resultsThe signals from the literature (congenital heart defects, oral clefts, neural tube defects and hypospadias) were not confirmed. Our exploratory analysis revealed that multi-cystic renal dysplasia had significantly increased odds of occurring after maternal exposure to combined alpha- and beta-blockers (adjusted odds ratio 3.8; 95% confidence interval 1.3-11.0).
conclusionBeta-blocker use in the first trimester of pregnancy was not found to be associated with a higher risk of specific congenital anomalies in the offspring, but a new signal between alpha- and beta-blockers and multi-cystic renal dysplasia was found. Future large epidemiological studies are needed to confirm or refute our findings.
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