Pregnant Asthmatics Should Continue Inhalant Medication

Pregnant women with asthma who don't use their inhalant medication could endanger their babies' lives.

Physicians at Baylor College of Medicine and Ben Taub General Hospital reviewed patient records of 25 pregnant women who had to be admitted to the hospital for asthma-related problems between 1990 and 1995. Five of the patients were hospitalized more than once.

Only 28 percent of the women had been using steroid inhalants to open up their lung airways.

"Limited use of inhaled steroid medication was probably the main reason these patients developed asthma-related breathing problems that warranted treatment in the hospital," says Dr. Ather Siddiqi, a Baylor resident specializing in pulmonary and critical care. He conducted the study with Dr. Nicola Hanania, assistant professor of medicine at Baylor and a member of the emergency center staff at Ben Taub.

Asthma attacks occur when muscles in the bronchial walls contract, causing partial obstruction of the bronchi, the tubes entering the lungs.

The obstructed airways can cause low levels of oxygen in the blood, which can be life-threatening to the fetus and mother, Dr. Siddiqi says. Four of the women in his study required treatment in the intensive-care unit, and two needed a respirator. None of the mothers or babies Dr. Siddiqi studied died, but the babies were more likely to have low birth weight (under 6 pounds).

- From Baylor College of Medicine

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Courtesy of Texas Medical Center News

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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URL: http://www.tmc.edu/health_briefs/12_01_97-asthmatics.html