Alcoholic Liver Disease Increases Risks for Pregnancy Complications: Presented at AASLD

By Cheryl Lathrop

BOSTON -- November 3, 2010 -- Chronic liver disease is a risk factor for an adverse pregnancy outcome, but alcoholic liver disease increases these risks and should be considered a severe risk factor for obstetric complications, researchers said here at the 61st Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

Knut Stokkeland, MD, Department of Medicine, Visby Hospital, Visby, Sweden, and colleagues reported findings from their study at a poster session here on November 1.

The researchers used the Swedish Hospital Discharge Register in Sweden (from 1969-2006) to identify women with liver disease. A total of 27,321 singleton children born of mothers hospitalised with liver disease were identified.

The Swedish Medical Birth Register (in operation since 1973) was used to identify the children. All children were then paired with 10 controls. The data registered at birth was: birth weight, preterm status, small for gestational age, stillbirth, and the Apgar score.

From these, it was determined that 720 children were born of mothers who had been hospitalised with alcoholic liver disease (ALD), and 8,595 children were born of mothers with non-alcoholic liver disease (NALD). ALD increased the risks to the pregnancy and was a severe risk factor in obstetric complications.

For ALD (n = 720), there were 5 (0.69%) stillbirths [controls 0.38%], 100 (13.9%) moderately preterm births [controls 6.2%], 10 (1.4%) very preterm births [controls 0.84%], 8 (1.1%) with an Apgar score <7 at 5 minutes after birth [controls 1.2%], and 62 (8.61%) that were small for their gestational age [controls 3.1%].

For NALD (n = 8,595), there were 35 (0.41%) stillbirths [controls 0.34%], 782 (9.1%) moderately preterm births [controls 5.3%], 123 (1.4%) very preterm births [controls 1.0%], 128 (1.52%) with an Apgar score <7 at 5 minutes after birth [controls 1.2%], and 348 (4.1%) that were small for their gestational age [controls 3.3%].

For ALD, 79.3% of the mothers smoked [controls 20.2%], 72.29% of the parents lived together [controls 95.0%], and 26.3% had a body mass index (BMI) >30 [controls 24.3%]. For NALD, 34.4% of the mothers smoked [controls 18.0%], 86.3% of the parents lived together [controls 94.6%], and 12.0% had a BMI >30 [controls 8.7%].

"Children born of women who were hospitalised with liver disease after birth were studied," Dr. Stokkeland added. "The risks were similar even for these children."

[Presentation title: Increased Risks for Obstetric Complications in Mothers With Alcoholic Liver Disease. Abstract 1204]

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