Breakthrough on folic acid link to newborn's congenital heart disease risk
Shanghai medical experts have made a breakthrough finding on the function of folic acid supplements taken before and during pregnancy.
Such supplements can drop the risk of offspring contracting congenital heart disease by half, according to a latest research conducted by a local medical team.
Congenital heart disease is the commonest inborn deformity, whose incidence is over eight in every 1,000 newborn babies. Though prenatal screening and after-birth screening is able to identify the disease in time, how to prevent and reduce the risk of congenital heart disease has always been a big concern for doctors and scientists.
Folic acid has been recommended for women who plan to get pregnant or are pregnant to reduce offspring's risk of neural tube defect prevention. However, many studies also found that mother's insufficient intake of folic acid before and during pregnancy may increase children's risk of congenital heart disease.
But most studies use mother's folate in serum as the research subject. Since folate in serum can be affected by many factors, different studies can yield different conclusions.
Dr Huang Guoying (center) and his research team in their laboratory.
Experts from Fudan University's Children's Hospital in Shanghai designed a new research format by measuring the mother's red blood cell folate and studying its relationship with the offspring's congenital heart disease.
They studied mothers of 197 sick children and compared them with mothers of 788 children without congenital heart disease. Folate was measured before or at early pregnancy.
"We found that higher maternal red blood cell folate is associated with reduced congenital heart disease risk for the offspring," said Huang Guoying, president of the hospital and a leading expert in the research.
Every increase of 100 nmol/L of folate can reduce offspring's risk of congenital heart disease by 7 percent. If a higher folate level than currently recommended for neural tube defect prevention (906 nmol/L) is achieved, the risk can be reduced by 51.3 percent, the researchers discovered.
"However, our research also found less than 30 percent of women in Shanghai taking enough and regular folic acid supplement before pregnancy and over 90 percent of women, who are planning to have children, haven't reached the recommended folate (906 nmol/L)," Huang said.
"Since congenital heart disease take places in early pregnancy, we suggest women, who are planning to get pregnant, take the supplement three months earlier."
He said experts will carry out more studies to find the best folate to prevent congenital heart disease while not increasing the risk of other diseases as well as the relationship between the father's folate and the offspring's congenital heart disease.
"This research is very meaningful. Because it means using a very economic and simple way to prevent and reduce a common inborn disease. It is a big public health issue," said Wu Qianyu from the Shanghai Health Commission.
The research was published by leading medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
