PREGNANCY, OUTCOME FOLLOWING MATERNAL ORGANIC-SOLVENT EXPOSURE - A METAANALYSIS OF EPIDEMIOLOGIC STUDIES

Background Evidence of fetal damage or demise from occupational organi c solvent levels that are not toxic to the pregnant woman is inconsist ent in the medical literature. The risk for major malformations and sp ontaneous abortion from maternal inhalation of organic solvent exposur e during pregnancy was summarized using meta-analysis. Methods Medline , Toxline, and Dissertation Abstracts databases were searched to locat e all research papers published in any language from 1966 to 1994. Inc luded were studies that were case-control or cohort in design and indi cated first trimester (or up to 20 weeks gestation for spontaneous abo rtion) maternal solvent exposure. A summary odds ratio (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was calculated from research results combine d by the Mantel-Haenszel method. Results In total, 559 studies were ob tained from the literature search. Five studies for each outcome of in terest qualified for inclusion in the analysis. The ORs for major malf ormations from five studies (n = 7,036 patients) was 1.64 (CI 1.16-2.3 0) and for spontaneous abortion from five studies (n = 2,899 patients) was 1.25 (CI 0.99-1.58). Conclusions Maternal occupational exposure t o organic solvents is associated with a tendency toward an increased r isk for spontaneous abortion and additional studies may affect the tre nd. There is a statistically significant association with major malfor mations which warrants further investigation. Am. J. Ind. Med. 34:288- 292, 1998, (C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.