Active Crohn's in pregnancy ups preterm birth risk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Among women with Crohn's disease, having active disease during pregnancy raises the risk of preterm birth, according to a study. Crohn's disease is a debilitating inflammation in the digestive tract that often affects women of childbearing age. The cause of the disease remains unclear.

For their research, Dr. Bente Norgard and colleagues from Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark examined the impact of Crohn's disease activity on various pregnancy outcomes in 71 women with low-moderate-high Crohn's disease activity during pregnancy and 86 women with inactive Crohn's disease during pregnancy.

In women with disease activity during pregnancy, the risks of delivery an infant of low birth weight and congenital abnormalities were not increased, compared to outcomes among women with inactive disease.

However, the risk of preterm birth was increased more than two-fold in women with active Crohn's disease during pregnancy. The risk of preterm birth was more than three-fold higher for women with moderate-high Crohn's disease activity during pregnancy.

These results imply that factors related to Crohn's disease activity might be crucial for the risk of preterm birth, according to the authors, but the underlying biological mechanisms are speculative.

SOURCE: American Journal of Gastroenterology, September 2007.