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Although previous
animal research has led some researchers to suggest that fever
in pregnant women may result in an increased risk of miscarriage,
a recent study found no increased risk when fever was present
during the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
However, researchers
were unable to assess the risk of miscarriage before the sixth
week of pregnancy and could not rule out fever as a potential
risk factor during very early pregnancy.
Researchers surveyed
over 24,000 women in the first half of their pregnancy and
obtained information such as fever frequency, duration and
temperature.
Of the women, close
to 4,450 reported that they had a fever and 1,145 eventually
had a miscarriage. Though fever was quite common during this
stage of pregnancy, no association was found between fever
and fetal death, even after adjustments were made for other
risk factors.
Few studies have
investigated this association between fever and miscarriage,
however, and researchers note that it is difficult to completely
rule out fever as a potential cause of fetal death.
The
Lancet November 16, 2002;360:1526, 1552-1556
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