This is the first prospective, controlled study of loperamide in pregnancy to date. The results do not support the findings in the previous study with the Michigan Medicaid patients. In that study, which was a surveillance study with no personal interviews of patients (108), six major malformations were found in the first trimester, three of [...]

A total of 105 women from five centres were followed pro- spectively. There were 58 cases from Toronto, Ontario; 25 from Rome, Italy; 16 from Jerusalem, Israel; four from Milan, Italy; and two from Helsinki, Finland. Eighty-nine (85%) women took loperamide during organogenesis, with 21 (20%) taking it throughout their pregnancies. Indications for use were [...]

The Motherisk Program is a counselling service for pregnant and lactating mothers, and their health professionals. Infor­mation about the safety or risk of drugs, chemicals, radiation and infectious diseases is given to approximately 35,000 call­ers per year. The other centres in Italy, Israel and Finland have similar services. The authors attempted to follow all the [...]

Loperamide (Imodium, Janssen-Ortho Inc, North York, Ontario/McNeil Consumer Products, Guelph, Ontario) is a synthetic piperidine derivative used for the treatment of both acute and chronic diarrhea. It exerts its action via cholinergic, noncholinergic, opiate and nonopiate recep­tor-mediated mechanisms. After oral administration, little systemic absorption takes place. About 40% ofa2 mg dose is excreted in the [...]

This study confirms previous reports of rates of asthma during pregnancy in the range of 0.4% to 1.3% (Table 2). It also demonstrates that rates of asthma during pregnancy are racially disparate, with African Americans and Hispanics at greater risk than whites. Furthermore, women with Medicaid and Medicaid Healthstart are at greater risk for asthma [...]

Descriptive Characteristics of the Study Population Only the racial/ethnic groups of non-Hispanic whites (n=337,130), non-Hispanic African Americans (n= 102,129), and Hispanics (n=80,898) were used for the analyses presented in this report. Those with other race/ethnicity (n=36,440,6.6% of the study population) were excluded from the analyses because of their heterogeneity. The characteristics of the study population [...]

The methods used have been described in part elsewhere but are summarized here. The data for this historical cohort study were obtained from an administrative database that contains linked birth certificate, infant death certificate, and maternal and newborn hospital discharge claims data for the delivery hospitalization for all singleton, live births to New Jersey residents [...]