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Is there an increased risk for adverse pregnancy outcome after exposure to low-dose methotrexate (MTX) during early pregnancy? A prospective multicenter cohort study.

Is there an increased risk for adverse pregnancy outcome after exposure to low-dose methotrexate (MTX) during early pregnancy? A prospective multicenter cohort study.

Status
Active, not recruiting
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Observational
Source
DRKS
Registry ID
DRKS00003328
Enrollment
1450
Registered
2012-01-18
Start date
2012-02-06
Completion date
Unknown
Last updated
2025-04-07

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

foetal methotrexate syndrome, congenital malformations, spontaneous abortions after intrauterine methotrexate exposure. MedDRA - 10071184 (LLT, 14.1): Foetal methotrexate syndrome Q86.8

Interventions

Group 1: Maternal exposure of low-dose MTX for rheumatic/autoimmune diseases
exposure time meets any time between 3 months before conception to 12 weeks after last menstrual period (LMP). Group 2: Control group 1 (“disease group”): Pregnant women with rheumatic /autoimmune di

Sponsors

Pharmakovigilanz- und Beratungszentrum für Embryonaltoxikologie; Charité Universitätsmedizin
Lead Sponsor

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
Female

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria: For all 3 cohorts: prospectively ascertained pregnancies, i.e. neither the outcome of pregnancy nor the results of prenatal diagnostics are primarily known, but are ascertained at a later stage. Study group Includes cases with low dose MTX, <=30 mg/week. Cases with more than 30 mg/week will be evaluated separately. MTX exposure time meets the period from 3 months pre-conception until week 12 after LMP. Exposure time may have started before 3 months preconception and continued beyond week 12.There is no limit of treatment duration during pregnancy. (Usually the treatment is stopped after recognition of pregnancy, which e.g. could be in week 20). A single dose of MTX is sufficient for study inclusion, as long as the single dose was not received earlier than one month before conception (in the preconception subgroup). Control group 1 (“Disease group”) Includes cases with rheumatoid arthritis or other autoimmune diseases either without medication or with other immunomodulatory/immunosuppressive drugs than MTX. (e.g. MedDRA HLT code 10039078: rheumatoid arthropathies, HLT-code 10025135: lupus erythematosus (incl. subtypes), PT-code 10002817: antiphospholipid-syndrome, HLT-code 10065874: psoriatic conditions, PT-code 10011401: Crohn ‘s disease, PT 10047115: Vasculitis; ICD-10 (2010: http://www.lumrix.de/icd.php): D68.6, K50; M05-M09; M32-36). Matched with study group for year of counseling and treatment indication (disease) and recruiting country. Control group 2 (“General controls”) Matched with study group for year of counseling and recruiting country.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria: For all three cohorts: Excludes cases with exposure to following medication that is considered as major teratogen or major fetotoxicant:Acitretin, Isotretinoin, Mycophenolate,Thalidomide, Valproic acid, Angiotensin-II receptor blockers (sartanes) (only when used in 2nd or 3rd trimester) and ACE inhibitors (only when used in 2nd or 3rd trimester) Excludes cases with the following treatment indication: Malignancies (MedDRA code: Malignant or unspecified tumors (SMQ 20000091) ), ICD-10: C00-D09). Malignancy related conditions (MedDRA: SMQ 20000092), ICD-10: C00-D09) Control group 1 (“Disease group”): Excludes cases with exposure to MTX Control group 2 ("General controls"): Excludes cases with exposure to MTX and cases with exposure to Immunomodulatory/immunosuppressive drugs (Exception: corticosteroids).

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frame
Rate of major birth defects, rate of specific MTX embryopathy (time frame up to approximately 8 weeks after birth), rate of spontaneous abortion, intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) in malformed and non malformed newborns (criterion: birth weigth), rate of prematurity.

Secondary

MeasureTime frame
Definition of a “teratogenic time window”. Evaluation of teratogenic dose-effect relationship. Rate of elective terminations of pregnancies (ETOPs). Postnatal symptoms and infant’s development are not subject to statistical analysis because there is no common tool for infant exam and data ascertainment for this study. However, individual observations will be analyzed and discussed.

Countries

Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, United States

Contacts

Public ContactCorinna Weber-Schoendorfer

Pharmakovigilanz- und Beratungszentrum für Embryonaltoxikologie, Charité Universitätsmedizin

corinna.weber-schoendorfer@charite.de0049-30-30308115

Outcome results

None listed

Source: DRKS (via WHO ICTRP) · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026