Maternal Abortion History and the Risk of Congenital Heart Defects A Case-Control Study

OBJECTIVE: To explore the association between maternal abortion history and congenital heart defect (CHD) risk in subsequent pregnancies. STUDY DESIGN: A multihospital-based case-control study was conducted The cases included 370 women whose fetuses were diagnosed with CHDs. The controls were 413 women with fetuses without an apparent malformation in the same hospital. All of the participants were investigated by trained interviewers. Univariate analysip was performed, followed by multivariate logistic regression analysis to calculate odds ratio and 95% confidence interval to evaluate the risk of maternal abortion history on CHD risk. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant positive associations between maternal abortion (induced abortion and spontaneous abortion) occurrence and the risk of CHDs. There were no statistically significant positive associations between the number of maternal abortions (induced and spontaneous) and the risk of congenital heart defects. CONCLUSION: Maternal abortion history may not be associated with fetal CHDs.