Antenatal exposure to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and risk of neonatal hypertension.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are used as tocolytics, which are medications that suppress uterine contractions for preterm birth prevention. Their effect on cerebral/systemic vascular beds poses the question of whether antenatal NSAID exposure is associated with neonatal hypertension. We performed a retrospective case-control study in a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit, including 40 hypertension cases (hospitalized neonates ≥ 35 weeks with systolic BP > 100 mm Hg on three consecutive days) compared to 134 controls matched by gestational age at delivery, plurality, and delivery date.

Antenatal exposure to sulindac and risk of necrotizing enterocolitis.

Objective: Most studies of tocolytics are underpowered to assess drug effects on rare adverse neonatal outcomes. Our aim was to optimize statistical power to assess the influence of sulindac on the rare but severe outcome of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) by performing a case-control study.

Study Design: A priori sample size of 78 in each group was estimated to detect a 2.