Women with chronic autoimmune diseases who take immunosuppressive medications during their first trimester of pregnancy are not putting their babies at significantly increased risk of adverse outcomes, according to a Vanderbilt study released online by the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism. The paper is one of the first to describe risks for medications used to treat autoimmune diseases when taken during pregnancy, according to first author William Cooper, M.D., MPH, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Pediatrics and professor of Health Policy at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn. Women with rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, lupus, scleroderma, and inflammatory bowel disease who filled prescriptions for immunosuppressive treatments during pregnancy were included in the study. The drugs studied included hydroxychloroquine, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors and other immunosuppressives such as sulfasalazine and azathioprine. When compared with the women who had medication treatment before, but not during, pregnancy the risk ratios for adverse fetal outcomes associated with immunosuppressive use during pregnancy were not statistically significant, the authors reported.