MATERNAL ASTHMA AND TRANSIENT TACHYPNEA OF THE NEWBORN

Objective. To examine the relationship between transient tachypnea of the newborn and asthma complicating pregnancy. Design. Historical coho rt analysis. Setting. Singleton live deliveries in New Jersey hospital s during 1989 to 1992 (n = 447 963). Patients. Mother-infant dyads wer e identified from linked birth certificate and maternal and infant hos pital claims data. Women with an International Classification of Disea ses, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) diagnosis code ( 493) for asthma (n = 2289) were compared with a four-fold larger rando mly selected control sample (n = 9156) from the remaining pool of wome n. Main Outcome Measure. Transient tachypnea of the newborn. Results. In the overall sample, after controlling for the confounding effects o f important variables, infants of asthmatic mothers were more likely [ odds ratio (OR), 1.79; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.35-2.37] than i nfants of control mothers to exhibit transient tachypnea of the newbor n. A stratified analysis by gestational age and sex revealed larger an d statistically significant associations in term infants (OR, 2.02; 95 % CI, 1.42-2.87) as opposed to preterm infants (OR, 1.51; 95% CI, 0.94 -2.43) and in male infants (OR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.35-2.71) as opposed to female infants (OR, 1.51; 95% CI, 0.92-2.47). On the other hand, afte r adjusting for important confounding variables, respiratory distress syndrome and maternal asthma were not found to be associated (OR, 1.14 ; 95% CI, 0.79-1.64). Conclusion. The results of this study provide ev idence that maternal asthma is a risk factor for transient tachypnea o f the newborn and differences in gestational age and sex were apparent in this association. The mechanism for this association remains to be determined.