MATERNAL ASTHMA AND CONGENITAL MALFORMATIONS

Pregnant women with asthma are advised to maintain optimal control of their asthma, although the effects of asthma and asthma medications on fetal development are not clear. In this issue of Thorax, Tata and colleagues describe a matched case–control study of children with malformations. The risk of malformation in children born to women with asthma was marginally higher than in those born to women without a diagnosis of asthma. However, this risk was not explained by the use of asthma treatment by the women. The results did suggest that the older cromones may be associated with a moderate teratogenic risk and thus …