Facial anthropometric measurements in offspring of epileptic mothers.

Background: Minor facial anomalies in 14-33% of exposed fetuses have been associated with the teratogenic effect of antiepileptic drugs (AED) since 1968. The purpose of this article is to describe the facial characteristics of offspring of epileptic mothers with and without exposure to AED by means of 22 anthropometric measurements, for the purpose of comparison with the measurements of offspring of non-epileptic women previously described in the literature, and to correlate the facial anomalies with the specific drug.

Methods: An interval was defined where 95% of the central values were considered as "common values" and the remaining 5% as "uncommon values" (UV) or as being in the "alert zone"; the odds ratio with Wolf modification was used and then Fisher's test for comparison with healthy newborns.

[Pharmacokinetic variations in anticonvulsants in Mexican epileptic women during different stages of the postpartum period].

During pregnancy, there are several physiological changes that influence the kinetics of medication administrated during this time. These physiological changes are not reestablished immediately during delivery; so, its concentration in biologic fluids is different when is administered immediately after delivery, than several weeks after. The purpose in this work was to identify the changes of pharmacocinetics constants for fenitoin and carbamacepine, in epileptic patients.

[Epilepsy and pregnancy. Prospective study of 100 cases].

The association between epilepsy and pregnancy trace a problem for possible complications for the mother and the foetus by toxicity of antiepileptic drugs (AED) on the epilepsy itself. A group of 100 pregnant epileptic women were prospectively studied (clinically and by measurement of serum levels (SL) of AED. Mothers participating lived in the Valley of Mexico, 61 patients received monotherapy and 18 received no drugs.