AZT May Raise Risk for Congenital Heart Disease

First-trimester AZT raised the risk for cardiac malformations, but other commonly used antiretrovirals were reconfirmed to be safe during pregnancy.

The increasing use of antiretrovirals (ARVs) worldwide means that more and more women will be on combination treatment when they conceive. And although the drugs' success in preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission is incontrovertible, their safety during pregnancy is still being evaluated.

Now, researchers have assessed the prevalence of birth defects in more than 13,000 ARV-exposed infants born in France between 1994 and 2010. Most of the mothers were from sub-Saharan Africa and had well-controlled HIV infection; only 2% were intravenous drug users.

Overall, 5388 (41.1%) of the infants had first-trimester exposure to one or more ARVs (rising from 19.1% in 1994–1996 to 51.7% in 2005–2010). The total rate of birth defects was 4.4% or 7.0%,…

Reviewing Author

Abigail Zuger, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Abigail Zuger, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

AZT May Raise Risk for Congenital Heart Disease

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Reviewing Author