Fewer multiple births could reduce autism risk in ART children
2015-03-19
(Press-News.org) In a paper published online today (Thursday, March 19), scientists report that the incidence of diagnosed autism was twice as high for assisted reproductive technology (ART) as non-ART births among the nearly 6 million children in their study, born in California from 1997 through 2007. However, much of the association between ART and autism was explained by age and education of the mother as well as adverse perinatal outcomes, especially multiple births. After accounting for these factors, the study showed an elevated risk only for mothers ages 20-34.
Notably, the study reported no significant increased risk of autism for women who gave birth to singleton children. "These results indicate that the higher autism risk may be due mainly to the large numbers of multiple births and complications of pregnancy and delivery among children conceived with ART," said Christine Fountain, assistant professor of sociology at Fordham University and affiliated researcher at Columbia University.
ART includes several techniques of assisted reproduction, such as in vitro fertilization, in which both egg and sperm are handled. Autism impairs social interaction and predisposes children to restrictive and repetitive behaviors. Over the past three decades California has witnessed a very large spike in autism cases, as have many other areas of the United States.
The study, a large collaboration between researchers at Columbia University, Fordham University, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was published by the American Journal of Public Health. The study was based on a massive linkage of different kinds of records from the California Birth Master Files for 1997 through 2007, the California Department of Developmental Services autism caseload for 1997 through 2011, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National ART Surveillance System for live births in 1997 through 2007. In sum, information about all of the 5,926,251 live births, including 48,865 infants conceived with ART and 32,922 cases of autism diagnosed by the Department of Developmental Services were involved in the study which compared births originated using ART with births originated without ART for incidence of autism diagnosis.
"This study of the relationship between ART and autism is the largest to date", said Dmitry Kissin, health scientist in CDC's Division of Reproductive Health. "The results indicate that reducing multiple births during ART may be beneficial for decreasing the risk of autism."
Peter Bearman, Cole Professor of the Social Sciences and the lead investigator at Columbia University said "While the risk of ART with respect to autism appears to be largely modifiable by restricting the procedure to single-embryo transfer, more research is needed to understand the precise mechanisms by which ART and autism are linked."
INFORMATION:
The study was supported by a National Institutes of Health Pioneer Grant, given to scientists pursuing new strategies to improve health, and an NIH R21 grant for exploratory research and was conducted through Columbia University's Interdisciplinary Center for Innovative Theory and Empirics. More information on this study can be found at http://incite.columbia.edu.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2015-03-19
Half a century ago, a concentrated global effort nearly wiped a disfiguring tropical disease from the face of the earth. Now, says Case Western Reserve's James W. Kazura, MD, it's time to complete the work.
In a perspective column in the Feb.19 New England Journal of Medicine, Kazura responded to a research article that demonstrated positive results from a single oral dose of azithromycin to 83.8 percent (13,302) of 16,092 residents of Lihir Island, Papua New Guinea.
"We have the medical knowledge to achieve global eradication, and new evidence establishes proof of ...
2015-03-19
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Incessant mountain rain, snow and melting glaciers in a comparatively small region of land that hugs the southern Alaska coast and empties fresh water into the Gulf of Alaska would create the sixth largest coastal river in the world if it emerged as a single stream, a recent study shows.
Since it's broken into literally thousands of small drainages pouring off mountains that rise quickly from sea level over a short distance, the totality of this runoff has received less attention, scientists say. But research that's more precise than ever before is making ...
2015-03-19
Both patients and physicians may benefit from a "work flow" system developed at military medical facilities and tested at a Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center clinic, according to results of an efficiency study.
The study evaluates a work flow method developed by the U.S. Air Force; Johns Hopkins researchers Shereef Elnahal, M.D., M.B.A. and Joseph Herman, M.D.; and consulting firm ProcessProxy Corporation. Called the Military Acuity Model, the method examines tasks performed by physicians and nurses and identifies jobs that can be safely assigned to support staff. For ...
2015-03-19
By genomic sequencing of leukemia cells from relapsed patients at different stages, scientists have discovered key details of how acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells mutate to survive chemotherapy. These mutations enable the cells to proliferate, causing relapse and often death.
The findings are important because ALL is a leading cause of cancer deaths in children, with 15 percent of ALL patients relapsing with poor survival. The researchers said their findings will lead to new tests to monitor children in remission and to detect signs of relapse.
The research ...
2015-03-19
Without better local management, the world's most iconic ecosystems are at risk of collapse under climate change, say researchers in Science. Protecting places of global environmental importance such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Amazon rainforest from climate change will require reducing the other pressures they face, for example overfishing, fertilizer pollution or land clearing.
The international team of researchers warns that localized issues, such as declining water quality from nutrient pollution or deforestation, can exacerbate the effects of climatic extremes, ...
2015-03-19
March 19, 2015--(Bronx, NY)--Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and their international collaborators have developed a novel fluorescence microscopy technique that for the first time shows where and when proteins are produced. The technique allows researchers to directly observe individual messenger RNA molecules (mRNAs) as they are translated into proteins in living cells. The technique, carried out in living human cells and fruit flies, should help reveal how irregularities in protein synthesis contribute to developmental abnormalities ...
2015-03-19
Prosthetics with a realistic sense of touch. Bridges that detect and repair their own damage. Vehicles with camouflaging capabilities.
Advances in materials science, distributed algorithms and manufacturing processes are bringing all of these things closer to reality every day, says a review published today in the journal Science by Nikolaus Correll, assistant professor of computer science, and research assistant Michael McEvoy, both of the University of Colorado Boulder.
The "robotic materials" being developed by Correll Lab and others are often inspired by nature, ...
2015-03-19
Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a new method for generating mutations in both copies of a gene in a single generation that could rapidly accelerate genetic research on diverse species and provide scientists with a powerful new tool to control insect borne diseases such as malaria as well as animal and plant pests.
Their achievement was published today in an advance online paper in the journal Science. It was accomplished by two biologists at UC San Diego working on the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster who employed a new genomic technology ...
2015-03-19
Berkeley -- Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have identified a new molecular pathway critical to aging, and confirmed that the process can be manipulated to help make old blood like new again.
The researchers found that blood stem cells' ability to repair damage caused by inappropriate protein folding in the mitochondria, a cell's energy station, is critical to their survival and regenerative capacity.
The discovery, to be published in the March 20 issue of the journal Science, has implications for research on reversing the signs of aging, a process ...
2015-03-19
Without better local management, the world's most iconic ecosystems are at risk of collapse under climate change, say researchers in a study published in the journal Science.
The international team of researchers say protecting places of global environmental importance such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Amazon rainforest from climate change requires reducing the other pressures they face, for example overfishing, fertilizer pollution or land clearing.
The researchers warn that localised issues, such as declining water quality from nutrient pollution or deforestation, ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Fewer multiple births could reduce autism risk in ART children
