This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Fred A. Baughman, Jr., MD
Grand Rapids, Mich

E. J. Randinitis, PhD
Detroit

JAMA. 1970;213(3):466.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor:—

The levels of diphenylhydantoin in the plasma of a young epileptic mother, in cord blood, and in the serum of her healthy newborn son were essentially equal, indicating that diphenylhydantoin freely crosses the placental barrier. The infant's serum levels suggest a first-order disappearance of diphenylhydantoin and a biological half-life of approximately 19 hours.

It is known that diphenylhydantoin crosses the placenta but to our knowledge, there have been no definitive studies reporting diphenylhydantoin levels in newborn infants.¹ The current study demonstrates that diphenylhydantoin freely crosses the placenta reaching equilibrium in the maternal and fetal blood.

Methods and Materials.—

A 19-year-old gravida 1, para 0, white woman gave birth to a healthy, 3,075 gm (6 lb 12 1/2 oz) male child at 8:15 p.m., May 12,1969. Diphenylhydantoin, 100 mg four times a day, had been prescribed for her upon the diagnosis of a seizure disorder in November . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?