A possible association between acute infectious diarrhoea in pregnant women and congenital abnormalities in their offspring--a population-based case-control study.

The possible association between Salmonella gastroenteritis (SGE) and infectious diarrhoea in pregnancy (IDP) and structural birth defects, i.e. congenital abnormalities (CA) in the offspring, has not been studied. The dataset of the Hungarian Case-Control Surveillance of Congenital Abnormalities, 1980-1996 was evaluated. There were 15 (0.07%) and 82 (0.36%) out of 22,843 cases and 23 (0.06%) and 70 (0.18%) out of 38,151 (0.34%) controls with mothers who had medically recorded SGE and IDP, respectively. There was no association of SGE and a higher risk of CA. However, a higher risk of cleft lip +/- palate, congenital limb deficiencies, multiple CAs and cardiovascular CAs was found in the offspring of mothers with IDP. A possible explanation for the association of IDP with higher risk for some specific CAs may be the high fever in IDP.