Why the study?
Does maternal preconceptional folate intake reduce the risk of cardiac outflow tract defects in infants?
Does maternal preconceptional folate intake reduce the risk of cardiac outflow tract defects in infants?
Preconceptional maternal intake of supplemental folic acid ≥400 μg does not appear to significantly alter the risk of cardiac outflow tract defects with or without transposition of the great arteries.
No association with folate intake observed; leaves open any preventive role pending prospective confirmation.
We compared cases with outflow tract defects (N = 126) with controls representative of the same birth cohort (N = 679). Infants with clinically recognized syndromes were excluded. Daily total maternal folate intake of ≥245 μg was inversely related to risk of cardiac outflow tract defects among those with transposition (odds ratio estimates: 0.65, 0.78, and 0.76 with increasing quartile of daily folate intake), but positively related among those with normally related vessels (corresponding odds ratio estimates: 1.18, 1.59, and 1.68). This difference disappeared when maternal intake of supplemental folic acid of ≥400 μg compared with < 400 μg was considered, excluding dietary intake [odds ratio (OR) = 1.04; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.5–2.2 for infants with transposition, and OR = 0.91; 95% CI = 0.5–1.8 for those without transposition of the great arteries].
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Scanlon et al. (1998) studied this question.
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