Spina Bifida News

East End Special Needs Dance Studio Expanding

2012-01-25T10:27:00.000-08:00

East End Special Needs Dance Studio Expanding
By: KARK 4 Today
Updated: January 25, 2012

Excerpt: "A local program is bringing the chance to dance in a comfortable environment to kids who may otherwise not get it.

The "I Can! Dance" program is geared toward children with spina bifida, down's syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism among other conditions. They have been using a local school's facilities, but are now working to build their own studios specifically designed to cater to their students' needs." Read the entire story >>

Related Link: Community Connections

Call to Support Graphic Novel by Paralyzed Doctor Who, Hellblazer Artist

2012-01-25T10:23:00.000-08:00

Call to Support Graphic Novel by Paralyzed Doctor Who, Hellblazer Artist
By Corrina Lawson
Wired Magazin
January 25, 2012

Excerpt" "GeekDad has supported a number of worthwhile Kickstarter projects that benefit artists but the information on this particular creator and his project one comes directly from DC Comics creator Gail Simone." More >>

A Recumbent Tricycle Allows Those Who Have Trouble Balancing to Cycle

2012-01-25T10:21:00.000-08:00

A Recumbent Tricycle Allows Those Who Have Trouble Balancing to Cycle
By Jordan Kooi of Lynden High School, Lynden, Washington,
as told to Flora Lichtman
Popular Science Magazine
Posted 01.24.2012

Excerpt: "Our inspiration came from a classmate who has spina bifida—a split spine—and can’t ride a regular bike. Our trike has extra back support and a steering system to make turning easier. On a normal bike, leaning in the direction you want to go helps you turn. It’s hard to do that on a trike because it’s rigid, but ours has hydraulic pistons that tilt the tires when you lean, allowing you to make tighter corners. You can go just as fast as you could on a regular bike, and we’re going to add an electric motor, so it is going to be really fun to ride. We’re building a prototype in our shop at school." More >>

College Scholarship Program

2012-01-09T11:53:00.000-08:00

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (PRWEB) January 06, 2012

The catheter and urological supply company 180 Medical Inc. is thrilled to announce a scholarship for college students with spinal cord injury, spina bifida, and transverse myelitis. This scholarship will give $1,000 each to three students that demonstrate triumph over their circumstances.

Starting January 1, 2012, students planning to attend a two- to four-year college in the coming fall for at least 12 credit hours may apply for 180 Medical's one-time scholarship. Realizing the financial hardship that many people with spinal conditions face, 180 Medical hopes that their scholarship will be helpful to those truly dedicated to furthering their educations.

The founder of 180 Medical, Todd Brown, has had his share of the difficulties that disabilities present. When he was paralyzed from the chest down, one of Brown's biggest challenges was the near-constant UTIs. His victory resides in not only being able to eliminate most infections and live a healthier life, but in creating a company that provides people like him with the same options. This scholarship takes that goal even further.

With this scholarship, those optimistic students that prove they are dedicated to furthering their education and enthusiastic about making a positive impact on the world can be given a reward that will help them to achieve their dreams.

To qualify, students must be high school seniors or graduates that have been accepted into college or returning college freshmen, sophomores, or juniors. Applicants must also be diagnosed with transverse myelitis, spina bifida, or a spinal cord injury by a doctor in writing. The deadline for applications is June 1, 2012.

Please visit the 180 Medical Scholarship Program for more information.

About 180 Medical:
180 Medical is one of America's fastest growing Nationally Accredited providers of sterile-use catheters, urologic, and disposable medical supplies. Based out of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 180 Medical is used as a referral source for some of the top rehabilitation facilities, pediatric hospitals and urologists in the world because of their extensive knowledge and customer care. The company has offices across the country and their products are covered by thousands of Health Plans, Insurance Networks, and State Medicaids. 180 Medical is also a supporter of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation as well as the Challenged Athletes Foundation.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/01/06/prweb9085172.DTL#ixzz1izbbmZqH

Wis. doctor creates possible life-saving device

2011-11-02T09:33:00.000-07:00

October 29, 2011

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Ten years ago, working on a night shift as a resident in a Madison emergency room, Josh Medow found himself treating a child with hydrocephalus, a disease in which fluid accumulates in the brain. The child had a headache and the anxious parents feared the worst — that a shunt designed to drain the fluid had failed and potentially lethal pressure was building up in the boy's brain.

Medow realized there was no way to check whether pressure was indeed increasing, short of intrusive and painful procedures. The child ended up in the operating room.

Today, Medow, 38, and an attending neurosurgeon at UW Hospital, is on the verge of patenting a device he invented that allows doctors and even parents to easily keep track of cranial pressure in a child with hydrocephalus.

The long journey from that night in the emergency room to the invention of the tiny silicon implant that now sits on his desk is partly a tale of how medical devices come to be. But it is also a story of invention, full of twists and turns, moments of insight (that light bulb going on over the head), night-long sessions in Medow's basement where he initially cobbled together a prototype, and a trip or two to Radio Shack.

Medow has long had an interest in how things work. Before getting his medical degree at UW-Madison, he earned a degree in applied life studies and biomechanics at the University of Illinois. When he was a boy, he liked to build radios. When he was 10, he bought himself a Commodore 64, a very early computer, and taught himself computer programming.

"I used to tinker," Medow said. "I worked at a Radio Shack when I was in high school."

Though he is now a doctor, Medow still views the world through the eyes of that tinkering boy. He sees problems that could be solved by devices and he thinks about how to build them.

About 700,000 people have hydrocephalus, a disease in which the body is missing the ability to re-absorb the cerebral spinal fluid that bathes the brain. That fluid is normally made and drained three times a day, Medow said.

But in those with the disease, it builds up and creates dangerous pressure that can lead to brain damage, stroke and blindness. Normally, a shunt keeps the fluid drained, but studies show half of all shunts fail within two years. Sometimes, for example, they get clogged; fluid builds up and pressure increases.

Medow couldn't stop thinking about the problem. There had to be a better way, he thought, to know whether a shunt has failed than doing surgery on the shunt itself, an operation that can cost as much as $15,000 and cause considerable pain.

That night, when he got home, he made the initial drawings for a device that could eventually be made small enough to be implanted to monitor pressure and allow parents and doctors to know whether a shunt had failed without doing invasive surgery.

The initial idea was fairly simple and drew on a basic principle of magnetism and electricity arrived at by English scientist Michael Faraday in 1831: electromagnetic induction. Faraday found that when he manipulated the magnetic field around an electromagnet by closing and opening an electrical circuit he had built around the magnet, an electrical current could be detected in a separate conductor nearby.

Perhaps, Medow thought, he could build a device using electromagnets that would collect electrical signals from the brain and send them to a separate device that would translate the information into something useful — such as a pressure reading. He could use a device called a transducer to translate pressure into electrical current. The higher the frequency, the higher the pressure in the brain.

Medow went to Radio Shack and bought $75 worth of electronics gear. Working at a coffee table in his basement he cobbled together a prototype on a piece of plywood.

It worked.

But, for a long time the prototype remained a prototype, a bunch of electrical equipment mounted on a piece of plywood that Medow had painted red. He was deep into his residency, working 100 hours a week at the hospital. Sometimes, he'd take friends down to his basement and show them what he'd made.

"They'd say, 'That's really nerdy, now let's go out for a beer,'" Medow recalled.

Eventually, however, Medow found numerous supporters on the UW-Madison campus who helped him move the work forward. They included John Webster, a professor emeritus of biomedical engineering, who became a champion of Medow's after he realized the value of the invention. Other supporters included Dr. Robert Dempsey, chair of neurosurgery at UW Hospital, and Dr. Berman Iskandar, professor of neurosurgery.

Last April, Medow was awarded a $300,000 grant from the Hartwell Foundation that would help the Department of Biomedical Engineering downsize the prototype into a tiny implant made from pliable silicon and shaped to fit neatly beneath a rounded skull.

Signals from the implant — called a transcutaneous inductive pressure monitor — will be read on a handheld device about the size of a television remote.

The final product of Medow's imagination now sits on his desk. He hopes to see it tested in human trials over the next three years.

"It's neat being a doctor and knowing there is a problem to solve," Medow said. "And it's neat knowing how to build a device that seems to have the potential to work. I just knew there had to be a better way."

Smith Introduces House Resolution on Spina Bifida

2010-10-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

October Is Spina Bifida Awareness Month; Thousands of Americans Live with Permanent Disabling Birth Defect

Oct 02,2010 - Washington - Spina bifida, a birth defect that threatens millions of Americans, is the focus of a House resolution, H. Res. 1664, introduced this week aimed at both raising public awareness of the disease and urging the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to launch a federal effort to improve access to health care facilities for individuals with disabilities.
Link to complete story

Breathe carefully: air emissions of benzene may cause birth defects

2010-10-26T10:14:00.000-07:00

Breathe carefully: air emissions of benzene may cause birth defects.
Environmental Health News

Pregnant women living in Texas neighborhoods with higher air levels of benzene – a pollutant often released from oil refineries and traffic exhaust – are more likely to have babies with neural tube defects. Women living in the areas with the highest benzene levels had a two times greater risk for their children to be born with spina bifida. This study is the first to examine the link between environmental levels of benzene and neural tube defects in newborns and adds to the growing body of evidence linking prenatal air pollution exposures to harmful effects on the developing fetus.
Click here for complete story

Cuddly dinosaur has a message for children

2010-09-29T08:45:00.001-07:00

A BIG blue dinosaur taught children about spina bifida during a visit to Fairfax Reserve, at Harrington Park, recently.

To educate children about what the condition is, Spinasaurus has a gap in his spine, a defect that occurs in 4.6 in every 10,000 pregnancies in Australia. Link to article

Disability Activist Creates Funds 4 Spina bifida

2010-09-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

"FUNDS 4 SPINA BIFIDA", A Petition Urging Congress To Increase Funding Towards Spina Bifida Research, Education & Programs.

Online PR News – 27-September-2010 – Funds 4 Spina bifida was created by Disability activist & American Poet Robert M. Hensel in order to help raise awareness to this disabling birth defect. Right now, there are 166,000 People living in the United States with this condition, and without the proper education and funding these numbers could become much higher.

Spina bifida occurs within the first 28 days of pregnancy, even before a Woman may know shes pregnant. That is why every Woman of childbearing age should educate themselves about the importance of taking folic acid. Link to article

Calls for more spina bifida awareness

2010-09-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

Calls for more spina bifida awareness
Bendigo Advertiser - ‎Sep 3, 2010‎

Eight years ago, Mark and Nicole Logan lost their son shortly after he was born with severe spina bifida myelomeningocele. Joshua Logan did not survive past... Link to article

Teen Masters Double Back Flip In Wheelchair

2010-09-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

Teen Masters Double Back Flip In Wheelchair
By Shaun Heasley
Disability Scoop
September 14, 2010

Spina bifida isn’t stopping Aaron Fotheringham who recently became the first person to do a double back flip in a wheelchair. Link to article and video

Related Stories:

Fearless Aaron's Flipped
The Sun
By PETE SAMSON, US Editor
Published: 06 Sep 2010
Teenage wheelchair stuntman nails world's first double backflip (after a few painful fails)
Daily Mail
Last updated at 11:17 AM on 6th September 2010

Vitamin 'may help prevent' spina bifida

2010-09-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

Vitamin 'may help prevent' spina bifida
By Eleanor Bradford, Health Correspondent
BBC Scotland
Sept 9, 2010

Scientists have begun a study to determine if an everyday vitamin supplement could help prevent one of Britain's most common birth defects.

Every year about 100 children in the UK are born with spina bifida and other neural tube defects.

Prospective mothers are advised to take folic acid as a way of preventing the condition. Link to article

London scientists in new spina bifida study - Inositol

2010-09-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

By Eleanor Bradford
Health Correspondent, BBC Scotland
September 9, 2010

Scientists are trying to find out whether a simple vitamin supplement could help to prevent one of the commonest birth defects in the UK.

Every year around 100 children in the UK are born with Spina Bifida and other neural tube defects. Many more pregnancies are terminated when it's diagnosed by an ultrasound scan.

Link to article (and video)

Chronically Ill, and Covered

2010-09-27T10:56:00.000-07:00

Chronically Ill, and Covered
Steve Hebert for The New York Times

By KEVIN SACK
Published: September 22, 201

Joe and Mary Thompson had agreed to adopt Emily before her birth in 1999, and it never occurred to them to back out when she was born with spina bifida. But that same year, their residential remodeling business in Overland Park, Kan., went under, prompting job changes that left the family searching for health coverage with a child who was uninsurable.

Link to article

FDA Approves Oral Contraceptive Containing Folate

2010-09-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

Robert Lowes
Medscape Medical News

September 24, 2010 — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved an oral contraceptive — the first of its kind — that is intended both to prevent pregnancy and reduce the risk for neural tube defects in newborns if and when users of the pill give birth.

Link to article

Vietnam, US still in conflict over Agent Orange

2010-05-20T10:31:00.001-07:00

Vietnam, US still in conflict over Agent Orange
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20100519/UPDATE/100519032

Statesman Journal - Ben Stocking - 1 day ago

Children of exposed servicemen who were born with spina bifida also receive a medical benefit. “American and Vietnamese Agent Orange victims haven't been ...

Vietnam, US still in conflict over Agent Orange

2010-05-20T10:31:00.000-07:00

8-year-old deals with cancer, spina bifida

2010-05-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

8-year-old deals with cancer, spina bifida
http://journalstar.com/lifestyles/family/article_908dd0e0-613e-11df-8e38-001cc4c03286.html

The Lincoln Journal Star

"For 8-year-old Elliott, life is all about playing with friends, teasing his teenage sisters, Sarah and Piper, and enjoying life regardless of what fate throws his way, be it spina bifida, seizures or now brain cancer."

Dutch Debate Ultrasound Use as Late Abortions Skyrocket

2010-02-17T07:04:00.000-08:00

Monday February 15, 2010

Dutch Debate Ultrasound Use as Late Abortions Skyrocket

By Kathleen Gilbert

AMSTERDAM, February 15, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Because late abortions have doubled since the government began offering ultrasound screenings to pregnant women at 20 weeks, some Dutch lawmakers are hoping to change the standard use of the tool, according to the Dutch daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

Gynecologist Hajo Wildschut told the paper that many women decide to abort their child after the 20-week ultrasound because it is at that stage that defects such as Down syndrome and spina bifida can be observed. That leaves women four weeks to decide whether to have the child killed before the legal cutoff for abortion at 24 weeks.

The Dutch government introduced the 20-week ultrasound for all pregnant women in 2007. Since then, the number of abortions between weeks 20 and 24 have doubled, according to data published by the Netherlands Health Care Inspectorate Thursday.

"Most of these children are wanted," said Wildschut. "But then the pregnancy takes such a tragic turn. The parents are struggling terribly with the questions: can we raise a child who has spina bifida or Down syndrome? Can we live with the decision of ending this pregnancy?"

Some lawmakers are pushing to delay the ultrasound: members of parliament with the pro-life Christian party, ChristenUnie, want to postpone the official ultrasound to the 24th week.

"The life of a person with disabilities is a valuable life," ChristenUnie MP Esmé Wiegman said last Tuesday. "We should be able to count on a careful approach when the life of an unborn child with a disability is involved."

If her proposal to move the ultrasound fails to get support, Wiegman said she would work to cap legal abortion at 18 weeks.

Experts have also concluded that the ultrasound was one reason there were no reports of euthanizing newborn babies in 2008, as children who would have been euthanized for severe birth defects instead were killed in the womb. The euthanasia of newborn infants is permitted in the Netherlands under certain conditions set forth in the so-called Groningen Protocol.

Some have also complained that the ultrasound was leading parents to kill children with minor defects, such as cleft lip, that could be corrected with a just few surgeries.

"We explain the child can be helped by undergoing three or four operations. And we will supervise the child for years, watch it grow up. We will never tell the mother: ‘this life is not worth it,'" said Marjan Nijhuis-Kloen, a nurse and cleft lip expert at a hospital in Nijmegen.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Researcher to Dutch Government: Allow Euthanasia for Newborns Based on Foreseeable Suffering

Former Dutch Health Minister Admits Error of Legalizing Euthanasia

Dutch Euthanasia Numbers Rise

Tengion plans $40 million IPO

2010-01-05T14:57:00.001-08:00

Tengion plans $40 million IPO
December 28, 2009 by MassDevice staff

Tengion Inc. rides a late-year surge in initial public offering filings to launch a bid for $40 million in fresh funding for its organ and tissue regeneration process.
Tengion logo

Joining what is quickly becoming a mini-stampede toward the public markets, a suburban Philadelphia biotech unveiled plans for an initial public offering of stock.

The company, Tengion Inc. of East Norriton, Pa., is working to commercialize a process that coaxes the body into producing its own replacement organs. Early testing has demonstrated some success rebuilding bladder tissue in children with spina bifida and Tengion officials are now hoping that those encouraging results will attract sufficient market support to finance additional clinical trials.

According to its preliminary prospectus filed Dec. 23, the company expects to raise up to $40.25 million in gross proceeds from the IPO. Other terms for the offering are purposely left vague, although it's clear that a sizable portion of the deal will go to pay off $24.3 million in loans coming due by April 2012 and requiring up to 12.26 percent in yearly interest costs.

Existing investors, which include Boston's Bain Capital and Oak Investment Partners of Westport, Conn., obviously are also eager for an IPO to loosen money they've had tied up in Tengion since August 2005. Overall, venture funds and institutional investors have a total of $184.2 million invested in the company, including a $33 million Series C funding round completed in September, 2007, and a $50 million B-round in June, 2006.

Liquidity desires and a rebounding market, meanwhile, appear to be spurring a surge in IPO filings after a long dry spell. With a week left in the current quarter, 62 companies have filed plans for first-time offerings — representing more than half of the year's total and marking the strongest quarterly activity in nearly two years, according to data gathered by Renaissance Capital.

Neural tube birth defects on rise in Utah

2010-01-05T14:55:00.000-08:00

Neural tube birth defects on rise in Utah
Salt Lake Tribune - Heather May

Thousands of Utah women are getting free bottles of multivitamins in the hopes that none of their future children will develop deadly but preventable neural tube defects.

The 26,000 bottles of vitamins, paid for by a federal grant and through a private donation by the group Vitamin Angels, contain 400 micrograms of folic acid. The B vitamin helps a fetal neural tube properly develop into the brain and spinal cord, according to the March of Dimes.

While the importance of folic acid was common knowledge a few years ago, fewer women know it now, according to the Utah Department of Health.

"We have a new cohort of women coming into this group every year ... who haven't heard this message," said Amy Nance, the Utah Birth Defect Network at the health department.

That may be why the number of Utah babies born with neural tube defects is on the rise. Up to 25 more babies were born in 2008 with defects like spina bifida or the deadly anencephaly (in which the brain fails to develop) than in the late-1990s.

Seventy percent of neural tube defects are preventable with the well-timed digestion of folic acid, according to the March of Dimes. The vitamin must be taken in the first few weeks of pregnancy when the neural tube is developing -- before women know they are pregnant.

Since one-third of Utah pregnancies are unintended, the health department is advocating all women of childbearing age take the supplement everyday.

It is using its grant money to focus on women in the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, which provides food vouchers and nutritional counseling.

The health department targeted WIC clients because they are an easy group to reach and their demographics also align with the mothers who have had babies with neural tube defects: Most are under age 30, and one-quarter are Latino, whose babies are up to two times more likely than others in the United States to have such a defect.

Since October, WIC offices in Box Elder, Cache, Rich, Salt Lake, Tooele and Wasatch counties have been giving out a 3-month supply of multivitamins to women who had had a baby six weeks before. One in five pregnancies in Utah occur within 15 months of a prior birth; 5 percent within 6 months.

The WIC offices also have a new DVD on folic acid to play in their waiting rooms, to target all women using WIC services.

hmay@sltrib.com

Xiao to visit Mumbai to treat spina bifida patients

2010-01-05T14:54:00.001-08:00

Xiao to visit Mumbai to treat spina bifida patients
India Today - Nishat Bari - ‎Dec 28, 2009

Dr. Chuanguo Xiao of China has developed a nerve re-routing surgical procedure to treat patients suffering from Spina bifida, a disorder of the spine, as well as other related spinal injury disorders. He had been invited to Mumbai for a week by Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital to conduct the surgery on patients as well as train doctors about the procedure.

Spina bifida is a congenital defect where the patient has no sensation or control of his bladder or bowels. Though people have this defect since birth, spinal injuries can also lead to the condition. Patients are dependent on diapers or catheter (a tube inserted into the bladder to drain bodily fluids) to cope with the condition and there is no other treatment for it.

Xiao has successfully treated the condition in over 1500 patients by re-routing the nerves from the bladder and bowels to the thighs. This is done using a part of a nerve from the patient's leg. The result is that the patient can activate his bladder or bowels on his own by scratching a spot on his thigh.

He has conducted 8 successful surgeries at Ambani Hospital with the help of a core team, comprising of Dr. Amrish Vaidya, Dr. Ketan Parikh, Dr. Abhaya Kumar and Dr. Poornima Shah. The surgeries have been sponsored by the hospital and the cost of the procedure is expected to be ascertained within 2-3 weeks. The hospital already has a long list of people who have enlisted for the surgery. In the US the surgery costs $45,000.

It takes about 5-6 months after the surgery for the nerves to grow before a result can be seen. In certain cases it can take almost 2 years before a change is noticed. The success of the surgery varies if the patient has undergone prior surgeries on the spine. In such cases the nerves have already been weakened by surgery and can take longer to grow. Xiao says that if the Xiao Procedure is carried out at an early age, the patient can even regain sensation of the bladder and bowels.

Xiao has been researching the procedure for the last 10 years, the first 8 on animals. He performed the first surgery on a person in China in 1995. In some of his first patients he noted a slight weakness in the patient's leg post the surgery. This was because he would use a whole nerve from the leg for the procedure. However, he has modified the technique and now uses only half or one third of the nerve, and says there are no side effects of the procedure.

Xiao is a professor and Chairman of the Department of Urology at Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College in China. He became interested in treatments for spinal injuries while he was a resident doctor at Hubei Medical College in China in 1976 when a huge earthquake killed thousands of people. Many of the victims suffered from spinal injuries. He has performed surgeries in several countries including USA, Germany, Denmark, Australia, and has been invited by several more including Philippines, Canada and Japan.

There are 80,000 new cases of Spina bifida in China each year. In India there are 25000 to 30000 new cases a year, or 5-7 cases per 1000 births. It can be diagnosed at birth as the children born with it have a lesion on the lower back.

Accidental Discovery Advances Understanding of Spinal Cord Birth Defects

2010-01-05T14:52:00.000-08:00

Accidental Discovery Advances Understanding of Spinal Cord Birth Defects
http://www.brainandspinalcord.org/blog/2010/01/04/accidental-discovery-advances-understanding-of-spinal-cord-birth-defects/

A report published in the December 6 issue of the journal Nature Cell Biology revealed a link between certain genetic mutations and early development of spinal cord disorders in mice. Scientists from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the University of California-Berkeley made the accidental discovery while searching for genes that guide the development and routing of the billions of neurons that make up the nervous systems of mice.

The study initially involved creating random mutations in mouse genes and then studying the offspring for nervous system defects. While examining thousands of mouse embryos as part of the study, graduate student Janna Merte noticed one of them had a spinal cord that had failed to develop from a flat sheet of cells into a tube.

Healthy spinal cord cells in mouse embryos develop at first in a flat layer of cells which then rolls up into a tube to begin forming the spinal cord. In spina bifida and other spinal cord disorders, the flat layer of cells never rolls up into a tube.

The mutated gene in the mouse embryo with the ill-developed spinal cord was identified by Merte as Sec24b, a gene already known to influence the process by which cells package proteins for the cell membrane or for delivery outside of the cell. The Johns Hopkins researchers then brought in Randy Schekman, the Berkeley professor who first discovered the Sec24 gene in yeast.

The team investigated another gene that, when mutated, led to similar problems with spinal cell tube closure in mice. The researchers discovered that the gene, known as Vangl2, was influenced by the presence of Sec24b. Further examination suggested that mutations in Sec24b and Vangl2 could be closely related to the development of spinal cord defects in humans.

Sixty-eight percent of mice engineered with mutations in both Sec24b and Vangl2 were born with spina bifida, which suggested to the scientists an integral interaction between the two genes.

Sec24b was found to be instrumental in spinal cord cells’ ability to properly package Vangl2. Mutations in either of the genes led to similar spinal cord defects in the animal models. The researchers’ discovery has opened the door to further studies in humans, which could lead to great advances in the understanding, prevention, and treatment of patients with spina bifida and other spinal cord disorders.

References:

Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. (December 28, 2009) “One Step Closer to Closure: Neuroscientists Discover Key to Spinal Cord Defects.” Retrieved December 29, 2009 from the Science Daily website: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091228090543.htm

CDC Study Links 2 Antibiotics to Birth Defects

2009-11-03T08:16:00.000-08:00

CDC Study Links 2 Antibiotics to Birth Defects
No added risk was found, however, for most commonly used infection-fighters
Posted November 2, 2009

By Jennifer Thomas
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Nov. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Taking antibiotics during pregnancy does not raise the risk for most birth defects, though there are some exceptions, new research has found.

Penicillin, which is the most commonly used antibiotic during pregnancy, as well as erythromycin, cephalosporins and quinolones, other widely prescribed antibiotics, were not associated with increased risk for about 30 different birth defects.

However, the study found that two types of antibiotics were linked with a higher risk for several birth defects: nitrofurantoins and sulfonamides, sometimes called "sulfa drugs," which are prescribed for urinary tract and other infections.

Women whose children had anencephaly, a fatal malformation of the skull and brain, were three times more likely to have taken sulfonamides, the study found. Sulfonamides were also tied to an increased risk for such heart defects as hypoplastic left heart syndrome and coarctation of the aorta, choanal atresia (a blockage of the nasal passage), transverse limb deficiency and diaphragmatic hernia, an abnormal opening in the diaphragm that results in severe breathing difficulties.

Nitrofurantoins were also associated with multiple birth defects, including anophthalmia and microphthalmos (eye defects) and several congenital heart defects. Mothers whose children were born with a cleft lip or cleft palate were twice as likely to have taken nitrofurantoins, the study found.

But pregnant women should not be overly worried if they need an antibiotic to treat an infection during pregnancy, stressed the study's lead author, Krista Crider, a geneticist with the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The most important message is that most commonly used antibiotics do not seem to be associated with the birth defects we studied," Crider said.

The findings are published in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Crider and her colleagues analyzed data on more than 13,000 women whose babies had one of more than 30 birth defects, including cleft palate, heart or limb defects and anencephaly. They compared the women's rates of antibiotic usage, from the month leading up to pregnancy through the end of the first trimester, with that of almost 5,000 women whose children did not have a birth defect. The data was culled from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study, which began in 1997 and includes about 30,000 women from 10 states.

Information on the impact of many prescription drugs on developing fetuses is sorely lacking, Crider pointed out. Much of that stems from the fact that ethical considerations preclude conducting drugs trials in pregnant women, she said.

Though many antibiotics have been used safely for decades, resistant strains of bacteria are forcing doctors to use a wider array of antibiotics. For some, little data exist.

The researchers found that about 30 percent of women took an antibiotic between the three months prior to conception and the end of the pregnancy.

Even antibiotics that generally were safe were found to be associated with a few specific birth defects. Women whose babies were born with a certain type of limb malformation were three times more likely to have taken penicillin. Erythromycin, cephalosporins and quinolones were also associated with an increased risk for one or two specific birth defects.

However, the researchers said they did not know if the birth defects were caused by the antibiotics or the underlying infection.

One expert said women need to remember the good antibiotics can do mom and baby, as well. Though many pregnant women want to avoid taking any drugs during pregnancy, infections pose a risk to mother and baby and often need to be treated, said Dr. Jennifer Wu, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

"Untreated infections during pregnancy can lead to severe consequences, such as maternal sepsis [blood infection] and preterm labor," Wu said. "Yet many patients are afraid to take medications such as antibiotics during pregnancy."

The study "supports the evidence that antibiotics are safe for pregnant women," she said. "It is reassuring for doctors and patients to have more data on necessary drugs for pregnancy."

Crider also stressed that the chances of having a baby with a birth defect remain small, even if an antibiotic has been linked to an elevated risk. For example, the risk of having a child with hypoplastic left heart syndrome is about one in 4,200. Sulfonamides were associated with a three-fold increase, making the likelihood about one in 1,400, she said.

Brand names for nitrofurantoins include Furadantin, Macrobid and Macrodantin. Bactrim and Septra are among the brand names of sulfonamides.

Given the data, Crider said, women should be cautious about taking either of those types of drugs during pregnancy and should discuss other options with their physicians,.

According to the study, the overall risk for having a child with a birth defect is about three percent.

The study did not look at chromosomal defects, including Down syndrome.

VitaPath gets $6M to fight spina bifida

2009-09-14T13:54:00.000-07:00

VitaPath gets $6M to fight spina bifida

VitaPath Genetics, developer of a diagnostic that could be used to lessen rates of the birth defect spina bifida, has raised $6 million in a first round of funding led by Mohr Davidow Ventures. The money should provide the Foster City, Calif. with runway through next year, covering testing for women with a high chance of having a baby with spina bifida.

The condition, which causes a underdeveloped spinal column often leading to nerve and brain damage, occurs in eight babies born every day. VitaPath’s mission is to identify women at high risk for the defect before they even conceive. Those who are can potentially fix the problem by taking high amounts of folic acid.

X/Seed Capital Management also participated in the financing. It previously provided see money which was rolled into the round.

Low Choline Level in Pregnancy Tied to Birth Defects

2009-08-19T15:04:00.000-07:00

Low Choline Level in Pregnancy Tied to Birth Defects
Anencephaly, spina bifida linked to nutrient found in foods, study shows
Posted August 14, 2009

FRIDAY, Aug. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Low blood levels of the nutrient choline during pregnancy increases the risk of brain and spinal-cord defects in newborns, U.S. researchers report.

They focused on two types of neural tube birth defects -- anencephaly and spina bifida. Anencephaly is a lethal condition in which the brain and skull don't develop, and spina bifida is a spinal-cord malformation that causes paralysis and lifelong disability.

The Stanford University School of Medicine team compared pregnancy blood samples from 80 women who gave birth to children with anencephaly and spina bifida to pregnancy blood samples from 409 women whose infants had no birth defects.

The results showed that choline levels were linked to risk of neural tube defects. Choline is found in egg yolks, soy, wheat germ and meats.

Women with the lowest blood choline levels during pregnancy were 2.4 times more likely to have infants with neural tube defects than women with average blood choline levels. Women with the highest choline levels had the lowest risk.

The study appears in the Aug. 14 issue of Epidemiology.

Primary author Gary Shaw, a professor of neonatology, noted that prenatal vitamins contain little or no choline. For women planning to get pregnant, "the best source for choline is still eating a variety of foods," he said in a university news release.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has more about neural tube defects.

Medical Technology: 'SmartShunt' To Regulate Pressure In The Brain

2009-05-04T12:32:00.001-07:00

Medical Technology: 'SmartShunt' To Regulate Pressure In The Brain

ScienceDaily (Apr. 19, 2009) — ETH Zurich researchers have simulated the motion of the cerebrospinal fluid in the human brain. They are using the results to develop a self-regulating system to treat hydrocephalus.

Cerebrospinal fluid is a colorless liquid surrounding the brain and the spinal cord and filling the cavities in the brain. It protects the brain from impact and vibrations, carries nutrients to it and harmful substances away from it, and acts as one of the brain’s communication routes. If too much of this fluid is produced or too little flows away, excessive pressure builds up in the head and hydrocephalus occurs.

The liquid flows into the abdomen

As a rule nowadays, hydrocephalus is treated by using a “shunt”: this involves implanting into the patient a thin tube that carries excess cerebrospinal fluid from the head into the abdomen via a pressure relief valve. However, this process often drains away too much or too little fluid. Most valves can no longer be adjusted after implantation. Although some valves have this option, the patient must visit the doctor for adjustments to be made.

ETH Zurich researchers led by Dimos Poulikakos, Professor of Thermodynamics, and Vartan Kurtcuoglu, Director of the Biofluidics group in the Laboratory for Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies, want to go one step further. They are working on a “SmartShunt”, a self-regulating pressure relief device. To achieve their aim they must understand exactly how the cerebrospinal fluid flows within the skull. For this, they simulated the motion of the fluid in three dimensions on a computer. Initial results were published in the February issue of the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering. Its title page shows a graphic image of the results, the research group having already made the title page in the January issue with a publication on aortic aneurysms (see the Literature references).

A brain scan is the first step

The cerebrospinal fluid fills the space between the skull and the brain, called the sub-arachnoid space, in which it pulses in a cycle controlled indirectly by the heart. With each heartbeat, the heart pumps blood through the brain, causing the blood vessels to expand and the space available for the cerebrospinal fluid to decrease correspondingly. The blood flows away again before the next heartbeat, and the space for the cerebrospinal fluid increases.

The publication came into being in collaboration with Peter Bösiger, Professor at the Institute of Biomedical Technology of ETH Zurich. His group scanned the sub-arachnoid space of a healthy 25-year-old man by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). They also used a special MRI technique to measure the velocity of the fluid in three planes to provide the boundary conditions for the calculations.

The scientists built a computer model based on the results of the measurements. They used a series of partial differential equations to describe the motion of the cerebrospinal fluid. At the same time, they had to take into account the fact that the sub-arachnoid space is criss-crossed by a sort of fine, networklike bar of tissues that retard the movement of the fluid. Instead of computing with the single bar, they represented the sub-arachnoid space in their model as a uniform porous medium similar to a sponge.

Valve for self-regulation

Based on the results, the researchers in the multi-disciplinary “SmartShunt” Project are now developing the basis for a shunt to control the outflow of cerebrospinal fluid automatically in accordance with the patient’s specific needs. The goal is a valve that controls the pressure in the patient’s head in real time, saving him or her regular visits to the doctor.

Dimos Poulikakos says, “We attach importance to the fact that definitereal medical problems are addressed in the continuation of basic research.” The researchers work in close collaboration with the medical staff of the University Hospital Zurich and with other ETH Zurich institutes. The Swiss National Science Foundation is funding the interdisciplinary project to the tune of approximately CHF 850,000. Poulikakos plans to start developing the actual product together with the industry in about three year’s time.

Knowledge of the cerebrospinal fluid motion will also be useful for other medical applications. The liquid plays a part in Alzheimer’s disease, in multiple sclerosis and in meningitis. In addition, drugs that cannot cross the blood-brain barrier can be injected into the cerebrospinal fluid, from where they reach the brain. In other cases, for example regarding painkillers, injection into the cerebrospinal fluid can allow the dose to be decreased to reduce side-effects.

Smurf Genes Help Cells Find the Path Ahead

2009-05-04T12:23:00.000-07:00

Smurf Genes Help Cells Find the Path Ahead
April 16, 2009
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Two critical genes that serve as beacons and give cells a much needed sense of direction in the chaotic days of early development have been identified by researchers at the University of Toronto.

The new findings, from the laboratory of Jeffrey L. Wrana, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute international research scholar, were published April 17, 2009, in the journal Cell, and help explain how a cell determines its sense of space. A better understanding of this phenomenon, called planar cell polarity, may also help scientists learn how improper cellular orientation can lead to spina bifida, polycystic kidney disease, and metastatic cancer. Each of these illnesses involves cells that don’t have a proper sense of direction, so they cannot tell which way they are going.

In a developing embryo, cells need to be in the right position at the right time. To get to their proper destination, cells must understand the difference between top and bottom, forward and backward. If this orientation is off just a little, development can be disrupted or derailed. In spina bifida, for example, cells can fail to recognize front from back, leading to improper formation of the spine.

In the past decade, Wrana has helped identify the importance of two Smurf genes (Smurf stands for Smad ubiquitination regulatory factor) in helping cells move and distinguish top from bottom. Cells rely on cues from their neighbors to sense this kind of orientation, and Wrana has been trying to understand how the Smurf genes facilitate the process. Until now, he didn’t know Smurf proteins had anything to with orienting cells in the backward/forward direction, as well.

“Our results were unexpected, but also exciting because they suggest the Smurf genes are coordinating different types of cell polarity,” says Wrana, who also works at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

As part of his study, Wrana and his team genetically engineered mouse embryos so they did not have functional copies of both Smurf genes, but the embryos failed to develop properly and died before birth. When Wrana examined the embryos, he observed that they had an atypical shape—they were short and wide instead of long and thin. In addition, he saw that the neural tube—the precursor to the spinal cord—had failed to close into its proper tubular shape. This type of developmental anomaly is similar to what happens in human babies who are born with spina bifida. The findings surprised Wrana because he did not expect that the changes in top/bottom polarity would be vital in this aspect of embryo development.

Instead, these characteristics suggested that the Smurf genes were related to an important network of genes called the Wnt signaling pathway. When this pathway goes awry in early development—which can happen for a variety of reasons—a number of defects can arise, including those Wrana saw in his Smurf-deficient mice. Researchers had known that Wnt signaling helps establish planar cell polarity, so Wrana investigated whether Smurfs were involved, too.

His first stop was the inner ear of the embryonic mouse. The inner ear contains hair cells, which vibrate in response to sound. To do their job, hair cells must line up neatly in a hexagonal pattern, like paving stones on a cobblestone street—a pattern made possible by planar cell polarity. But in the Smurf-deficient mice, the hair cells looked like they were laid by a drunken mason. “In the normal embryos, the hair cells were all pointing the same way in a beautiful array,” Wrana says. “But in the mutants they were disorganized and rotated and pointing the wrong way.”

This disruption suggested the Smurf genes were critical for planar cell polarity. To strengthen his case, Wrana used advanced proteomics techniques to map the interactions of proteins in a cell. Those analyses showed that the proteins made by the Smurf genes interacted with two proteins, called Prickle and Disheveled, that are also linked to planar cell polarity.

In healthy cells that know front from back, Prickle accumulates on one side of the cell, and Disheveled on the other side. This lopsidedness appears critical for planar cell polarity. Wrana found that the Smurf genes actually create this lopsidedness by destroying Prickle on one side of the cell. We believe that through this destruction of Prickle, cells establish an asymmetrical distribution of proteins, and that’s how the cells become polarized properly,” Wrana says.

Wrana is now investigating what role Smurf genes play in other tissues, such as the trachea and kidneys, where planar cell polarity is known to be important. He also wants to study their role in diseases. For example, “there are lots of hints that planar cell polarity is important in cancer,” he says. Other researchers have found that cancer cells often have an excess of the proteins made by the Smurf genes. “We think the elevated expression of Smurfs interferes with the polarity of the cells,” he says. “Within the tumor, the cells become disorganized and display aberrant behaviors, which may help them escape and metastasize.”

Do Pesticides Make Birth Defects Crop Up?

2009-05-04T12:20:00.001-07:00

Do Pesticides Make Birth Defects Crop Up?
High Pesticide Levels in Spring and Summer May Be Linked to an Increase in Birth Defects, Study Says
By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

March 27, 2009 -- New research shows that babies conceived in the spring and early summer have a higher risk for a wide range of birth defects, including Down syndrome, cleft palate, and spina bifida.

The reported increase in birth defects was modest, but it coincided with a similar spike in groundwater pesticide levels during the spring-early summer planting season.

These findings suggest that pesticide exposure may influence birth outcomes nationwide, researchers say.

“There appears to be a season of conception in which the risk of having a child with a birth defect is higher,” Indiana University School of Medicine neonatology professor Paul D. Winchester, MD, tells WebMD.

“This study does not prove that pesticides cause birth defects, but we set out to show that they did not and we were not reassured.”
Pesticide Levels Measured in Water

In earlier studies, researchers have reported increases in birth defects, pregnancy complications, and miscarriages in babies born to farm workers with high levels of exposure to agricultural pesticides.

But the study is one of the first to suggest that indirect exposure to agricultural chemical may influence birth outcomes.

Winchester and colleagues compared data on pesticide levels in surface water between 1996 and 2002 to data on birth defects at the national level during the same period.

The researchers used the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA), which includes samples from 186 streams across the United States, representing 50% of the drinking water consumed in the country.

Statistics on birth defects were reported to the CDC by individual states.

The NAWQA analysis confirmed that concentrations of widely used pesticides in ground water were highest in the months of April through July during the period examined.

During this same period, women who conceived in these months were about 3% more likely to deliver a baby with a birth defect than women who conceived in other months, Winchester says.

“That doesn’t sound like much, but at a population level it could mean thousands of additional birth defects,” he says.
Prospective Study Under Way

Winchester adds that inconsistent recording of birth defects from state to state during the time the data were collected probably resulted in an underestimation of birth defects.

During this time, 13 states and the District of Columbia had only passive birth defects surveillance programs.

March of Dimes medical Director Alan R. Fleischman, MD, tells WebMD that even with the limitations, the study raises important questions about the impact of environmental chemical exposures on birth outcomes.

“There is a limit to what you can imply from this type of study,” he says. “But it does focus attention on an important issue.”

Fleischman chairs the advisory committee for the National Children’s Study, the largest prospective study ever in the U.S. to examine the effect of environmental influences on children’s health.

Researchers are now recruiting women for the trial. The goal is to follow 100,000 children nationwide from conception to age 21.

“We will certainly be measuring exposure to environmental chemicals before conception and during pregnancy,” he says. “This is not easy to do, but it is important to better understand the relationship between chemical exposures and birth outcomes.”
pregnancy week-by-week newslet

Panel: Avoid Epilepsy Drug in Pregnancy

2009-05-04T12:16:00.000-07:00

Panel: Avoid Epilepsy Drug in Pregnancy
New Guidelines Urge Pregnant Women to Avoid Taking Valproate Because of Risk of Birth Defects
By Charlene Laino
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

April 27, 2009 (Seattle) -- Women with epilepsy should avoid taking the drug valproate (Depakote) during pregnancy if possible, according to new guidelines developed by the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the American Epilepsy Society.

"There is good evidence that valproate, whether used by itself or in combination with other medications, increases the risk of major birth defects, including cleft palate and spinal bifida," says guideline co-author Gary S. Gronseth, MD, vice chairman of neurology at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City.

Additionally, taking valproate during pregnancy has been linked to lower IQs in children, he tells WebMD.

The guidelines come on the heels of a study showing that women with epilepsy who took valproate during pregnancy gave birth to children whose IQ at age 3 averaged up to 9 points lower than the scores of children exposed to other epilepsy drugs.

In response to the guidelines, a spokesperson for Abbott, which makes valproate, said the drug may be the only effective medication for some women, but doctors and patients should discuss risks and benefits of treatment.

Pregnant women may also want to avoid taking the seizure drugs phenytoin (Dilantin) and phenobarbital, as they too have been linked to lower IQs in children, Gronseth says.
Epilepsy and Pregnancy

Gronseth and other panel members stress that pregnancy is safe for most women with epilepsy.

"Overall, what we found was very reassuring to woman with epilepsy planning to become pregnant," says lead guideline author Cynthia Harden, MD, director of the epilepsy division at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine.

"Contrary to previous dogma, women with epilepsy are not at a substantially increased risk of having a cesarean section, late pregnancy bleeding, or premature contractions or premature labor and delivery," she says.

Also, if a woman is seizure-free for nine months to one year before she becomes pregnant, it's likely that she will not have any seizures during the pregnancy -- even if she switches medications, Harden tells WebMD.

About 500,000 women of childbearing age in the U.S. have some form of epilepsy, which is characterized by brief disturbances of electrical activity in the brain, according to Harden. Three to five out of every 1,000 births are to women with epilepsy.

The guidelines were prompted by a thorough review of more than 50 articles published over the last 10 years. They were presented here at the AAN's annual meeting and simultaneously published online in the journal Neurology.

Other recommendations include:

* If possible, women with epilepsy should avoid taking more than one epilepsy drug at a time during pregnancy, as doing so raises the risk of birth defects compared with taking only one medication.
* Pregnant women with epilepsy should have their blood tested regularly. "Pregnancy has been shown to lower the levels of anti-epileptic drugs in the blood, which may put women at risk of seizures. Checking these levels and adjusting the medication doses should help to keep the pregnant woman seizure-free," Harden says.
* Women planning to become pregnant should take at least 400 micrograms of folic acid a day, as supplementation has been shown to be "possibly effective" in preventing major birth defects. That's the same amount of folic acid already recommended by the CDC to prevent neural tube defects, especially spina bifida.
* Smoking during pregnancy may increase substantially the risk of premature contractions and premature labor and delivery during pregnancy.
Epilepsy Drugs and Breastfeeding

The epilepsy drugs primidone (Mysoline) and levetiracetam (Keppra) were detected in breast milk at various levels "that may be clinically important," while valproate, phenobarbital, phenytoin, and carbamazepine ( Tegretol) were not, the panel says.

"We didn't find much evidence one way or another that any of the drugs caused adverse effects in babies who were breastfed, but this information can help women and their doctors to make decisions about breastfeeding," Harden says.

Women should not stop taking any drug without consulting their physician, Harden stresses.

She suggests that women with epilepsy have a discussion with their doctor about seizure medications at least six months before becoming pregnant.

Valproate is an "excellent drug," and for some women, it may be the only medication that effectively controls their seizures, Gronseth says. "Women and their doctors have to weigh the potential risk of birth defects against the potential risk of uncontrolled seizures."
Valproate Also Used to Treat Migraines

"Luckily, it's not that hard to avoid valproate during pregnancy," as there are now more than a dozen seizure drugs available, says AAN spokesman Joseph Sirven, MD, professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix.

Sirven points out that many more people, including pregnant women, take valproate to relieve migraine headaches.

"Lower doses are used than for epilepsy, so the drug may not pose the same problems [as when used to treat seizures]," he tells WebMD.

Nonetheless, women who have been prescribed valproate for any reason "should have a frank discussion with their doctors if they are planning to become pregnant," Sirven says.

Folic acid may raise cancer risk in offspring

2009-05-04T12:14:00.000-07:00

Folic acid may raise cancer risk in offspring
CARLY WEEKS
From Monday's Globe and Mail
April 20, 2009 at 9:09 AM EDT

Canadian researchers have discovered that folic acid consumed during pregnancy can alter the gene function of offspring, potentially affecting their susceptibility to disease.

The finding is part of a growing - and controversial - body of research that raises serious questions about whether long-term consumption of folate and folic acid may increase the risk of developing certain cancers in some people.

The debate is far from benign. Food manufacturers are required to add folic acid to enriched flour and grain products under federal regulations that came into force in 1998. The premise behind fortification, which was also mandated in the United States, is to ensure that women receive adequate levels of folate in order to reduce the risk of birth defects in their offspring.

A decade later, however, new research and scientific studies have found evidence that increased consumption of folic acid may help trigger the onset of colon and other types of cancer.

Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate, which is a B vitamin that occurs naturally in leafy greens and other fruits and vegetables. It has been shown to significantly reduce the chance of neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, and helps produce and maintain healthy cells and is involved in numerous biological functions.

The new Canadian research, presented yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Denver, found that folic acid consumption by the mother has effects on her offspring.

The research is part of a burgeoning field of science known as epigenetics, which studies how gene activities are changed or influenced by diet, lifestyle and other environmental factors. Certain genes can become activated or rendered dormant depending on these factors.

In some cases, genes that protect the body against certain types of cancer can be shut off, while genes that promote tumour formation can be turned on. Changes to genes can also trigger mutations, which explains why epigenetics has been gaining so much attention in the scientific community for its potential ability to help explain the mystery of disease risk.

In the new study, led by Karen Sie, a research scientist in the University of Toronto's faculty of medicine, researchers gave two groups of laboratory rats folic acid supplementation. One group received the equivalent of the daily recommended intake for humans, 0.4 milligrams, and the other group received a higher dose, equal to 1 milligram in humans, which is the maximum recommended daily intake for women during pregnancy.

They found that offspring of rats that received the higher dose experienced a much higher degree of changes to genes in the colon and liver shortly after birth. But as the rats aged, there was a significant drop in the changes to genes.

The researchers don't yet know which specific gene functions were changed. It could be that the high degree of changes noted shortly after birth could silence genes designed to suppress tumours. But the changes could also activate genes that help protect against cancer.

Regardless, the discovery that folic acid can turn genes on or off could help in the quest to determine whether the supplement does contribute to increased risk of cancer in some people.

"The concern is with the high dose that people are getting nowadays," Ms. Sie said.

Despite the new findings, there are still strong defenders of folic acid fortification.

"We know ... folic acid is needed to prevent neural tube defects," said Gideon Koren, director of the Motherisk program at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. "As we talk now, 40 per cent of women in Canada do not have enough folic acid to protect the baby from spina bifida and other malformations."

Dr. Koren said Canada's fortification program is one of the key elements needed to reduce the incidence of neural tube defects, and that considering changes because of results from studies that primarily involve rats could be dangerous.

However, others say it's becoming harder to ignore the growing debate about folic acid. Despite its clear benefits when taken by pregnant women, the move to fortify food with folic acid means a major portion of the population is consuming a higher level of the supplement than they would otherwise.

Now, concern is growing that parts of the population that may be susceptible to colon cancer and other diseases could be put at greater risk due to their inadvertent exposure to folic acid.

"It's a real dilemma," said Joel Mason, associate professor of medicine and nutrition and director of the Vitamins and Carcinogenesis laboratory at Tufts University in Boston, who specializes in folic acid and folate.

And there are no simple solutions. Putting an end to fortification could put more women at risk of having babies with neural tube defects. But keeping folic acid supplements in the food supply could put certain people at a higher risk of disease.

A significant amount of research is currently being conducted to answer these questions, including studies looking at whether North American folic acid fortification led to changes in the population rates of certain types of cancer.

Dr. Mason said that despite any fears over safety, the research is too preliminary to warrant changes to fortification programs. But government regulators should be paying close attention as new research emerges, he said.

Canadian study finds immigrant women may be at greater risk of having a baby with a birth defect

2009-05-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

Canadian study finds immigrant women may be at greater risk of having a baby with a birth defect

Published: Sunday, 19-Apr-2009

Immigrant women are less likely to use folic acid supplements before pregnancy to prevent spina bifida, particularly those who recently immigrated to the country, according to a new study led by a St. Michael's Hospital physician in collaboration with Statistics Canada, Health Canada and the University of Toronto.

The study is the first to provide national estimates of pre-pregnancy folic acid use in Canada.

"Our study's findings report that while about six in 10 Canadian-born mothers take folic-acid supplements in the three-month period before conception, mothers from non-western countries - China, Northern African, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, Latin American or South Pacific countries - are less likely to use the supplements," St. Michael's Hospital's Dr. Joel Ray said. "This information is important for policy makers and health practitioners as we aim to better educate new mothers and prevent neural tube defects in their babies."

Neural tube defects are birth defects of the spinal cord and brain, otherwise known as spina bifida and anencephaly. Research has shown the risk of neural tube defects can be reduced by nearly 50 per cent with folic acid supplements taken just before and soon after conception, or through consumption of food fortified with folic acid. However, an estimated six to 12 in every 10,000 fetuses in Canada still develop neural tube defects.

The study, an analysis of 6,349 new mothers aged 18 to 45 years, examined the relationship between folic acid supplement use in the three months before conception and the mother's maternal country of birth and years of residence in Canada.

Sixty one per cent of Canadian-born women in the study reported using folic acid supplements in the three month period before conception. However, these rates were much lower among women born in the Caribbean or Latin America (41%), Sub-Sahara Africa (44%), Northern Africa or the Middle East (31%), or South Asia (46%). What's more, only 39% of foreign-born women living in Canada less than four years reported using supplements compared to 64% of foreign-born women living in Canada at least 17 years.

"The disparity in pre-conceptual folic acid supplement use may be due to unplanned/unintended pregnancies or lack of awareness of the benefits of folic acid supplements," Ray said. "Immigrant women, especially those from non-Western countries, are least likely to have this information, which can otherwise be easily provided to these women through various communication mediums."

The study's authors suggest immigrant women be provided with a language-specific pamphlet on the benefits of folic acid, or even with free supplements.

http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/

Mediterranean diet may help prevent spina bifida

2009-03-18T08:53:00.001-07:00

Mediterranean diet may help prevent spina bifida

Reuters Health
Thursday, February 12, 2009
By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Moms-to-be can help prevent their babies from developing a serious spinal cord defect by eating a Mediterranean diet, Dutch researchers say.

Dr. Regine P. M. Steegers-Theunissen of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and colleagues found that women who ate more fruit, vegetables, healthy oils, fish and whole grains were less likely to give birth to a child with spina bifida.

Folic acid supplementation has been shown to help prevent this birth defect, in which the spinal cord fails to close completely. Some countries, including the United States, now fortify foods with folate to ensure pregnant women are getting enough of the nutrient. But folate isn't the whole story, Steegers-Theunissen told Reuters Health. "It's not only folate which is protective, but it's the whole diet. It's the balance of the diet in which folate is an important component."

In southern Europe, where the Mediterranean diet originated, rates of spina bifida are lower, and the defect is also less common in countries that fortify food with folate, the investigators note in their report.

To investigate whether diet might play a role in spina bifida risk, the researchers studied the diets of 50 women who had given birth to a child with spina bifida and 81 women whose children did not have the birth defect.

Women with the least Mediterranean-like diet were about three times more likely to have had a child with spina bifida, the researchers found. And the more closely a woman's diet adhered to the Mediterranean pattern, the higher her blood levels of folate and vitamin B12.

In the Netherlands, food is not fortified with folate, Steegers-Theunissen noted in an interview. Some of the women in the study, but not all, were taking folic acid supplements. But when the researchers controlled for the effects of the supplements, as well as body mass index (another known risk factor for having a baby with spina bifida), they found the Mediterranean diet independently reduced spina bifida risk.

SOURCE: BJOG, February 200

Low Levels of Vitamin B12 May Increase Risk for Neural Tube Defects

2009-03-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

Low Levels of Vitamin B12 May Increase Risk for Neural Tube Defects
NIH
Monday, March 2, 2009

Children born to women who have low blood levels of vitamin B12 shortly before and after conception may have an increased risk of a neural tube defect, according to an analysis by researchers at the National Institutes of Health, Trinity College Dublin, and the Health Research Board of Ireland.

Women with the lowest B12 levels had 5 times the risk of having a child with a neural tube defect compared to women with the highest B12 levels.

Women who consume little or no meat or animal based foods are the most likely group of women to have low B12 levels, along with women who have intestinal disorders that prevent them from absorbing sufficient amounts of B12.

Neural tube defects are a class of birth defects affecting the brain and spinal cord. One type, spina bifida, can cause partial paralysis. Another type, anencephaly, is a fatal defect in which the brain and skull are severely underdeveloped.

Researchers have known that taking another nutrient, folic acid, during the weeks before and after conception can greatly reduce a woman’s chances of having a child with a neural tube defect. Folic acid is the synthetic form of the vitamin folate. In the United States, cereal grains are fortified with folic acid to reduce the occurrence of neural tube defects in the U.S. population.

The study appears in the March Pediatrics. The study’s first author was Anne M. Molloy, Ph.D., Trinity College Dublin. Scientists from the Health Research Board of Ireland and two NIH institutes, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Human Genome Research Institute, also took part in the study.

"Vitamin B12 is essential for the functioning of the nervous system and for the production of red blood cells,” said Duane Alexander, M.D., director of the NICHD. "The results of this study suggest that women with low levels of B12 not only may risk health problems of their own, but also may increase the chance that their children may be born with a serious birth defect."

Ireland has a high rate of neural tube defects, and NIH scientists have frequently collaborated with Irish researchers to gain insight into the causes of this group of disorders.

To conduct the study, the researchers analyzed stored blood samples originally collected during early pregnancy from three groups of Irish women between 1983 and 1990. During that time, pregnant women in Ireland rarely took vitamin supplements. The study authors reasoned that the lack of routine vitamin supplementation would allow them to identify a sufficient number of women with low Vitamin B12 to conduct their analysis.

For their analysis, the researchers classified the women into three groups. The first group consisted of 95 women who were pregnant with a child having a neural tube defect at the time the blood was taken. The second group was composed of 107 women who had previously given birth to a child with a neural tube defect but whose current pregnancy was not affected. Like the first group, women in the third group (a total of 76) were pregnant with a child having a neural tube defect at the time the blood sample was obtained, but were enrolled in a different study than the women in group 1. The researchers measured the Vitamin B12 and folate levels of the women’s blood samples, and compared them to those of control groups whose pregnancies were unaffected by a neural tube defect.

Because low folate levels are a known risk factor for neural tube defects, the researchers used statistical techniques to evaluate the role of Vitamin B12 independently of the role of folate. In all three groups, women with low B12 concentrations (estimated at less than 250 ng/L, before pregnancy) had 2.5-3 times the risk of having a child with a neural tube defect compared to those with higher levels. Women with levels in the deficient range (0-149 ng/L ) were at the highest risk: 5 times that of women with higher levels.

The study authors wrote that it is not known how B12 and folate might interact to influence the formation of the neural tube, the embryonic structure that gives rise to the spine and brain. They noted that the two vitamins are jointly involved with several key biochemical reactions, as well as with the synthesis of DNA. Lack of either Vitamin B12 or folate in any of these chemical processes theoretically could increase the risk of a neural tube defect.

The authors noted that their results needed to be confirmed by other studies among other populations of women. They suggested, however, that women should have Vitamin B12 levels above 300 ng/L before becoming pregnant. (Because B12 levels drop sharply during pregnancy, the researchers adjusted the levels measured during pregnancy to provide a target level for women to achieve before they become pregnant.)

Because Vitamin B12 comes from foods of animal origin, women who adhere to a strict vegan diet may be at risk for a B12 deficiency, said an NICHD author of the paper, James L. Mills, M.D., senior investigator in the Division of Epidemiology, Statistics, and Prevention Research. He added it is advisable for women with digestive disorders that interfere with the absorption of foods to consult a physician before getting pregnant, to make sure they are receiving adequate amounts of B12.

Dr. Mills explained that critical events in the formation of the brain and spinal column occur very early in pregnancy—in the first 28 days after conception—before many women even realize they are pregnant.

He added that the U.S. Public Health Service recommends that all women of childbearing age consume 400 micrograms of folic acid each day. This amount assures that a woman will have adequate stores of the vitamin, in the event of an unintended pregnancy.

"If women wait until they realize that they are pregnant before they start taking folic acid, it is usually too late," Dr. Mills said.

Similarly, he said, it would be wise for all women of childbearing age to consume the recommended amount of Vitamin B12, whether they are planning a pregnancy or not. "Half of the women who become pregnant each year in the U.S. were not planning to become pregnant."

"Our results offer evidence that women who have adequate B12 levels before they become pregnant may further reduce the occurrence of this class of birth defects," Dr. Mills said.

Vitamin B12 is available in milk, meats, poultry, eggs, as well as fortified cereals and some other fortified foods. Information on foods that contain Vitamin B12, as well as the Recommended Dietary Allowances for the vitamin, is available from the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets/vitaminb12.asp.

Folate is found in leafy green vegetables, fruits, and dried beans and peas. Information on sources of folate also is available from the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/folate.asp.

Dr. Mills explains the study findings in the accompanying online video at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/news/resources/links/videoNTDS-B12

A transcript of the video is available on the NICHD Web site at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/news/resources/links/transcriptNTDS-B12.cfm

The NICHD sponsors research on development, before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. For more information, visit the Institute’s Web site at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

Filmmakers to tackle Canadian Agent Orange scandal

2009-03-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

Filmmakers to tackle Agent Orange scandal
Published Monday March 9th, 2009

A group of New York moviemakers will settle into the Fredericton region for the next few weeks to film what it calls "Canada's dirty secret" to a worldwide audience.

Filmmakers Danny Feighery and Gregg de Domenico and two colleagues arrive in Fredericton today to work on their documentary about the lingering effects of the spraying of Agent Orange and other toxic chemicals at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown.

They will remain until the April 1 deadline for the federal government's $20,000 ex-gratia compensation payments passes.

"It's such a bizarre story," said Feighery. "There's all these different qualifiers and rules and absurdities to it."

"The whole story seems to be pretty absurd. There's never been anything so massive in western civilization for a government to poison their own people on this scale."

He's personally invested in the story.

His grandfather was a member of the provost corps at CFB Gagetown - the precursor to the military police - so his mother Sharon grew up on the base, ate blueberries that had grown on the base and played there.

When his sister Theresa was born, she had spina bifida. It's a congenital defect of the spine, in which part of the spinal cord and the meninges are exposed through a gap in the backbone. The condition has been linked to exposure to Agent Orange and a whole host of other toxic chemicals that were sprayed on the base.

It wasn't until a family reunion last year in Nova Scotia where relatives talked about Agent Orange that Feighery's family began drawing possible links to his sister's spina bifida and exposure to toxic defoliants.

"No democracy has ever let half a million people be contaminated by a toxin and then never tell them about it and cover it up," he said.

De Domenico said the story deserves a wider audience.

"I'm curious about the story and I'd like to see somebody see this through to get some answers," he said. "I know, personally, I feel like - especially coming out of the Bush administration in the United States - we're all looking for some degree of accountability from our governments.

"I know I personally feel like I want to see transparency and I want to see fairness. I want to know we're not being taken advantage of by corporate interests."

They plan to delve into the involvement of chemical companies, the military and the government.

"We want to go further, looking into the factfinder's mission, the results of the factfinder's mission, how that affected Veterans Affairs and the compensation packages. Then straight into the compensation packages ending April 1 and where does everyone go from there," de Domenico said.

Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson has said the April 1 deadline isn't absolute and if a late application is received, it will be considered.

Payments are also considered for primary caregivers of qualifying individuals who died on or after Feb. 6, 2006, the date the federal Conservative government took office.

Thankfully, he said, many people in the region have taken up the challenge of doing the research.

He just hopes to do them justice on the big screen.

"We're very much doing our best to tell their story."

"There's only so many times you can sit with them and hold their hands while they're crying, saying they feel left in the cold. I want to feel like we can get the word out and maybe bring some more attention to this."

And for de Domenico and Feighery, who have long worked making commercials and feature films, it's a chance to put their craft to a higher use.

"We want to get back to a place where filmmaking is about helping society and making a difference."

"What we really need now is to talk to politicians who understand the story and are sympathetic.''

The film is tentatively titled Gagetown: Canada's Dirty Secret. They hope to have an 80- to 90-minute film ready by later this spring, the deadline for entering the Toronto Film Festival.

Feighery and de Domenico have been keeping in touch with people involved with the movie through their website: www.gagetownmovie.com.

Neuroscientists isolate gene essential to early brain development

2009-03-18T08:33:00.000-07:00

Neuroscientists isolate gene essential to early brain development
November 27th, 2008

University of Queensland neuroscientists have discovered the crucial role a specific gene plays in forming the neural tube, the earliest identifiable structure in the developing brain and an essential precursor to the entire central nervous system.

While investigating neural tube closure in the clawed toad (Xenopus laevis) and in zebrafish, Associate Professor Helen Cooper at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) has, for the first time, described one of the processes that drive this crucial stage of brain development, which is common to all vertebrates.

“Globally, neural tube closure defects occur in about one-in-a-thousand human pregnancies, resulting in malformations of the central nervous system and conditions such as spina bifida or anencephaly,” Dr Cooper said.

In spina bifida, for example, incomplete closure of the embryonic neural tube leads to incorrect development of the spinal cord, often resulting in significant disability.

“Although it has been known for some time that regular intake of folic acid before conception greatly reduces the incidence of neural tube abnormalities, scientists are still trying to understand the complex interplay of genes during this crucial early stage of brain development.”

“Our laboratory has now established that a copy of one particular gene (Neogenin) is essential for proper formation of neural folds, the first stages in the development of neural tubes.

“If the neural folds do not develop then the neural tube cannot close, resulting in neural tube defects,” Dr Cooper said.

“And just as importantly, our lab has also discovered that Neogenin is vital for differentiation of neural stems cells throughout the development of the early central nervous system.”

Neuroscientists studying early brain development often investigate zebrafish because these small freshwater animals produce several hundred embryos, which develop rapidly and are almost totally transparent from fertilisation to hatching (about 48 hours), allowing scientists to view brain development as it happens.

Dr Cooper's research: “Neogenin and RGMa control neural tube closure and neuroepithelial morphology by regulating cell polarity” is published in this week's edition of the Journal of Neuroscience.

Babies & Robots: Infant power mobility on display

2009-03-18T08:31:00.002-07:00

Babies & Robots: Infant power mobility on display
February 4th, 2009

Children with mobility issues, like cerebral palsy and spina bifida, can't explore the world like other babies, because they can't crawl or walk. Infant development emerges from the thousands of daily discoveries experienced by babies as they move and explore their worlds.

Mobility-deprived kids start exploring when they can operate a traditional power wheelchair, typically at age 3 or often older.

Research done by University of Delaware researchers is turning that on its head and could potentially change the way these children's brains develop.

Physical therapy professor Cole Galloway and mechanical engineering professor Sunil Agrawal have developed tiny power chairs babies as young as 6 months can operate using a joystick.

Now, they've paired with Permobil, a national producer of power chairs, and outfitted a chair for toddlers.

Galloway will be showcasing this research next week in Las Vegas at the American Physical Therapy Association's Combined Sections Meeting. (Tuesday, February 10, 10am-3pm)

A 17-month-old boy, Andrew, who's been driving the robots for more than a year, will be on hand to demonstrate the technology. On an average day, Andrew uses his chair to navigate his home and the outside world. He is ready to attend pre-K next year, impressive progress for a child with spina bifida.

Galloway believes providing mobility to children who wouldn't have it otherwise could impact their lives in countless ways, especially when you consider the rapid brain development during infancy.

"Babies literally build their own brains through their exploration and learning in the complex world," he says. "Their actions, feelings and thinking all shape their own brain's development.

"Mobility is linked to widespread advances in cognitive development and learning abilities in typically developing infants."

The University of Delaware has filed patents and is working to bring to market a robot-enhanced mini wheelchair for children aged 6 months-2 years.

For more information, check out:

http://www.udel.edu/research/media/babiesrobots.html
http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2009/oct/robots100708.html
http://www.udel.edu/PT/About Us/People/galloway.html

Source: University of Delaware

Obesity during pregnancy linked to increased risk of babies born with abnormalities

2009-03-18T08:31:00.001-07:00

Obesity during pregnancy linked to increased risk of babies born with abnormalities
February 11th, 2009

(PhysOrg.com) -- A Newcastle University study has shown that obese women who become pregnant have an increased risk of their baby being born with certain abnormalities, including spina bifida.

They found that women who were obese were more than twice as likely to have a baby with spina bifida, a condition which affects a very small number of pregnancies but which may result in disability.

Dr Judith Rankin from the team who carried out the study says, “Women who are thinking about trying for a baby need to check their own weight first and then think about seeking help if they are overweight. While you are pregnant it’s not the time to start a weight loss diet but it is more important to eat sensibly and healthily.”

Recent studies suggest up to a fifth of pregnant mothers are classed as obese in the UK - a figure that has doubled in the last 10 years.*

In the United States, a third of women age 15 years and older were obese in 2004.

Obese is considered as a Body Mass Index (BMI) over 30, while overweight is classed as a BMI over 25, as categorized by the World Health Organisation.

The study, out today in the academic journal JAMA, analysed and combined data from 39 previous studies to look at the risks of abnormalities in the baby for mothers who were obese or overweight.

It showed that obese women were nearly twice as likely to have a baby with neural tube defects which are caused by the incomplete development of the brain, spinal cord and/or their protective coverings. For one of those conditions, spina bifida, the risk was more than doubled.

Researchers also detected an increased risk in heart defects (cardiovascular anomaly), cleft lip and palate, a malformation of the lower bowel (anorectal atresia), increased risk of water on the brain (hydrocephaly) and problems in the growth of arms and legs (limb reduction anomaly).

For the first time, researchers found a possible link between mothers who are overweight and babies with neural tube defects, although they say more research needs to be done in this area.

“This is the first time that so many studies have been combined to build a more accurate picture and it shows a link between a mother’s weight and many of these serious conditions in the newborn baby. Given that we are seeing an increase in the number of people who are overweight or obese, then we may see an increase in the number of babies born with abnormalities”, says Dr Rankin.

Despite their findings, the researchers were keen to stress that these abnormalities are uncommon. “Spina bifida only occurs in approximately one in every two thousand births, so the risk, even among obese women, remains very low.”

The Newcastle University team will now continue the work to examine why there is a link between a mother’s weight and abnormalities in the baby.

Academic paper: Maternal Overweight and Obesity and the Risk of Congenital Anomalies. A systematic review and Meta-analysis. Katherine J. Stothard, PhD, Peter W.G Tennant, MSc, Ruth Bell, MD, Judith Rankin, PhD.

More information: JAMA. 2009;3016:636-650.

Notes:

*There are no national published figures relating to pregnancy so this figure is based on a study published in 2006 in BJOG which showed 16% of women are obese at booking in Middlesbrough.

Birth brain defect could be treated with vitamin supplement

2009-03-18T08:27:00.000-07:00

Birth brain defect could be treated with vitamin supplement
March 17th, 2009

(PhysOrg.com) -- Pioneering research published today suggests that a vitamin supplement taken during pregnancy could prevent hydrocephalus - one of the common forms of birth brain defect.

Scientists at The University of Manchester and Lancaster University say laboratory tests have shown that administering a combination of vitamins (tetrahydrofolate and folinic acid), dramatically reduces the risk of hydrocephalus.

Dr Jaleel Miyan, who led the research in Manchester’s Faculty of Life Sciences, said: “Hydrocephalus is a condition arising from an abnormal build-up of fluid within the chambers of the brain.

“This fluid build-up - usually caused by a blockage in the fluid’s pathway due to trauma, infection or abnormal development - is associated with an increase in the pressure on the brain resulting in brain damage. When this happens, doctors can relieve this pressure only by performing surgery.

“Our studies have revealed that hydrocephalus is associated with a change in the composition of the cerebrospinal fluid and it is this chemical change that prevents normal growth of the brain cells resulting in arrested brain development. This occurs prior to any brain damage due to raised pressure.”

The findings of the study, funded by Association for Spina Bifida & Hydrocephalus (ASBAH) and published in the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, led the team to examine ways of stimulating cell division to encourage normal brain development.

Dr Miyan explained: “A combination of tetrahydrofolate and folinic acid - both naturally occurring substances - stimulated brain cell growth and had a significant positive effect on brain development in laboratory experiments on rats and reduced the incidence of hydrocephalus.

“In laboratory experiments, the combined folate supplement works at any stage during pregnancy which means that it may be effective even if it is commenced after the diagnosis of hydrocephalus is made at an 18 to 20 week pregnancy scan.

Wheelchair basketball gets limelight

2008-01-28T09:01:00.000-08:00

Lampert Smith: Wheelchair basketball gets limelight
Wisconsin State Journal, WI - Dec 29, 2007

... camera pans down to the other way Scott is different than most of us: He's been in a wheelchair his whole life, because he was born with spinal bifida. ...

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Baby gorilla has surgery for spina bifida

2008-01-28T08:49:00.000-08:00

Successful surgery for baby gorilla
Seattle Post Intelligencer - Jan 11, 2008

Doctors confirmed during surgery that the baby also suffers from mild spinal bifida, which is not expected to be a concern as she grows older, they said. ...

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Movie Review: The Devil's Backbone

2008-01-28T08:45:00.000-08:00

Movie Review: The Devil's Backbone
Written by Purple Tigress
Published January 06, 2008

If you've seen Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, you might be interested in his 2001 movie, El Espinazo del Diablo or as we know it, The Devil's Backbone. He called it the spiritual sequel to Pan's Labyrinth.

...The devil's backbone, according to Dr. Casares, is what superstitious villagers call fetuses with spina bifida...In order to provide some money for the orphanage, the doctor plays on the local superstitions. The preserved fetuses are embalmed in spices and rum, and the rum is believed to cure various ailments, most importantly impotence....These incompletely formed children are nobody's children, but according to the doctor, they are the result of poverty and ignorance....

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Nike to Feature UW Whitewater Student in Ad

2008-01-28T08:37:00.000-08:00

Nike to Feature UW Whitewater Student in Ad
Story Created: Dec 29, 2007

Story Updated: Dec 29, 2007

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- University of Wisconsin-Whitewater junior Matt Scott is already one of the nation's top wheelchair basketball players.

Next week, he's set to become a TV star too.

Scott, 22, will be featured in a new Nike ad directed by UW-Madison graduate Errol Morris. Morris also directed Miller Brewing Co.'s High Life Man commercials.

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Serious Birth Defects are Declining in North Carolina

2008-01-28T08:29:00.000-08:00

Babies have a healthier start in life thanks to efforts led by the NC Folic Acid Council and the March of Dimes

RALEIGH, N.C. – Over the past ten years there has been a significant decline in the rate of spina bifida in North Carolina. In observance of National Folic Acid Awareness Week, January 7-13, the North Carolina Folic Acid Council (NCFAC) and the March of Dimes would like to recognize the work North Carolina has done to reduce the number of babies born with this serious birth defect.

“We’re seeing progress in the fight to eliminate neural tube defects like spina bifida thanks to folic acid fortification and an intense public health campaign to increase folic acid consumption through multivitamins,” said Amy Mullenix, MSW, MSPH, Statewide Campaign Coordinator. “Yet, there are still too many babies born with spina bifida and we want to make sure every woman of childbearing age gets the message that she should be taking a multivitamin every day, just in case.”

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Birth defects down after low-carb craze

2008-01-28T08:23:00.000-08:00

Saturday, January 5, 2008
Birth defects down after low-carb craze
Rates have dropped 30 percent in state since peak of the diet trend in 2003

By Richard Craver
JOURNAL REPORTER

The passing of the low-carb craze and an increase in fortified, high-grain foods appears to have helped reduce the rate of birth defects in North Carolina, two nonprofit agencies said yesterday.

The N.C. Folic Acid Council and the March of Dimes reported that the rate of defects affecting the central nervous system has dropped 30 percent in the state since the low-carb fad peaked in 2003.

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Folic acid's trade-offs of concern

2008-01-28T07:41:00.000-08:00

Folic acid's trade-offs of concern
By Stephanie Desmon | Sun reporter
January 27, 2008

It was all about the babies. A decade ago, when the U.S. required flour, bread and pasta to be fortified with folic acid, health experts believed it would help prevent devastating birth defects such as spina bifida.

There's no question that it worked. As many as 1,000 newborns a year in the United States - and many more elsewhere - have been spared so-called neural tube defects because their mothers got a crucial infusion of folic acid before they even knew they were pregnant.

But now some scientists are asking whether there have been unforeseen trade-offs for the population as a whole - including thousands of additional colon cancer cases each year, a somewhat smaller bump-up in prostate cancer, and an increase in cognitive impairment among the elderly.

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Doctors debate euthanasia on babies with spina bifida

2008-01-28T07:33:00.000-08:00

Active intervention to end the lives of babies born with spina bifida is not necessary. That is the position taken by paediatric neurosurgeons from 12 countries in an article in the medical journal 'Child's Nervous System'. These physicians express their concern at the practice in the Netherlands of carrying out euthanasia on some babies born with spina bifida (the result of Meningomyelocele, see box for information).

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