Purpose: to evaluate a possible relationship between fetal malformations (FM) and the use of sulfonylureas (SF) by diabetic pregnant women. Methods: we retrospectively studied 35 type 2 diabetic pregnant women followed at the Pathological Prenatal Care Outpatient Clinic of the University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, from 1993 to 1995. Twenty-two of these women had been inadvertently using sulfonylureas during the 1st trimester of gestation (SF group). We determined their prevalence of FM and compared it to that observed for pregnant diabetic women who were only on diet or insulin therapy (group C). We also analyzed other variables such as time of disease, age, metabolic control, and prenatal care. Results: there was no significant difference between groups in terms of age range, duration of diabetes, glycemic control, or early start of prenatal care, with the prevalence of FM being similar for the two groups (8.3% in group C and 13.6% in group SF). The malformations observed in group SF were: renal agenesis, pulmonary hypoplasia and ribbon gonads (patient 1); short limbs and abnormally implanted toes (patient 2); cleft palate, low implanted ears, neck webbing and saddle nose (patient 3), and micrognathia, dysplastic ears, imperforate anus, hypospadia, polydactily, ventricular septal defect and atrial septal defect (patient 4) in group C. Conclusions: these data do not allow us to attribute the malformations detected in group SF to the use of sulfonylureas, although not usually described alterations in diabetic embryopathy occurred in this group.
Diabetes mellitus; Fetal malformations
