Why the study?
Does maternal lithium carbonate exposure during pregnancy cause congenital heart disease and toxicity in newborns?
Does maternal lithium carbonate exposure during pregnancy cause congenital heart disease and toxicity in newborns?
Maternal lithium carbonate exposure during early pregnancy is associated with congenital heart disease, particularly tricuspid valve involvement, and toxicity in newborns.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Supports caution with lithium in early pregnancy; extends the case series on tricuspid anomalies but leaves causality and practice change open.
A newborn with massive tricuspid regurgitation, atrial flutter, congestive heart failure, and a high serum lithium level is described. This is the first patient to initially manifest tricuspid regurgitation and atrial flutter, and the 11th described patient with cardiac disease among infants exposed to lithium compounds in the first trimester of pregnancy. Sixty-three percent of these infants had tricuspid valve involvement. Lithium carbonate may be a factor in the increasing incidence of congenital heart disease when taken during early pregnancy. It also causes neurologic depression, cyanosis, and cardiac arrhythmia when consumed prior to delivery.
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Rica G. Arnon (1981) studied this question.
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