Maternal exposure to valproic acid during the first trimester of pregnancy significantly increased the risk of major malformations.
The teratogenicity of the widely popular antiepileptic drug (AED) and mood stabiliser sodium valproate (also known as valproate, VPA) has been evidenced by previous research; however, these findings have often been limited by a small population sample of exposed women and a retrospective study design. Many factors contribute to the teratogenicity of VPA. These include the number of drugs that are co-administered, drug dosage, differences in maternal and/or infant metabolism, the gestational age of the fetus at exposure, and hereditary susceptibility. VPA has been associated with a variety of major and minor malformations, including a 20-fold increase in neural tube defects, cleft lip and palate, cardiovascular abnormalities, genitourinary defects, developmental delay, endocrinological disorders, limb defects, and autism. It has been suggested that polytherapy treatment in epileptic pregnant women increases the risk of teratogenicity in offspring. Furthermore, there is an established relationship between VPA dose and adverse outcome. Large single doses of VPA potentially cause high peak levels in the fetal serum resulting in deleterious effects. Currently there is an increase in the number of national and international pregnancy registries being formed in an effort to better identify the teratogenic effects of AEDs. These efforts hope to enhance our understanding of AEDs and their associated risks by addressing past study limitations.
Although excess fat mass is broadly linked to increased cardiovascular risk, the relation between vascular phenotype and degree of obesity in extreme weight categories is unknown. We examined brachial artery vasomotor responses using ultrasound in 203 consecutive patients mainly afflicted with severe obesity (mean age 44 ± 11 yr; body mass index (BMI) 46 ± 9 kg/m 2 , range 30-72 kg/ m 2 ; and body weight 128 ± 29kg, range 69-207 kg). We studied a unique population with >70% of subjects characterized as morbidly obese (BMI ≥ 40) including a 31% group of super-obese individuals (BMI ≥ 50). Brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and nitroglycerin-mediated dilation (NMD) were examined as measures of endothelium-dependent and -independent dilation, respectively, in relation to clinical, hemodynamic, and metabolic parameters. Endothelial function was significantly impaired in the highest as compared to lowest tertile of body weight (FMD 6.5 ± 4.6 vs. 9.8 ± 4.8%, p<0.001), whereas NMD was similar in all groups. Univariate correlates of FMD were gender, weight, waist circumference, BMI, diastolic blood pressure, and creatinine. In multivariate analysis, weight was a strong independent significant predictor of FMD (β= −0.23, p=0.005) in addition to gender. Within an overweight population, cumulative weight burden remains strongly linked to progressive arterial dysfunction. In conclusion, these results suggest that cardiovascular risks intensify with escalating obesity, and underscore the importance of therapeutic weight loss interventions in the context of the expanding obesity epidemic.
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