The effect of prenatal administration of different doses of cortisone, corticosterone, dexamethasone, triamcinolone and prednisolone on the fetus and its palatal development was studied. All the glucocorticoids, except cortisone, produced cleft palate in the fetuses. Both the total frequency and morphologically different types of cleft palate were related to the dose of the teratogen. Triamcino...

Birth defects induced by maternal exposure to exogenous agents during pregnancy are preventable, if the agents themselves can be identified and avoided. Billions of dollars and manhours have been dedicated to animal-based discovery and characterisation methods over decades. We show here, via a comprehensive systematic review and analysis of this data, that these methods constitute questionable ...

Lindane, an organochlorine pesticide, has been widely used in public health and agriculture in several countries including India. Lindane has long been associated with pollution due to its long persistence and quick accumulation in fatty tissues. It is considered a possible carcinogen, mutagen, teratogen, immunotoxin, and neurotoxin in mammals. However, data on toxicity of lindane to fish is in...

Extracts of effluents from a modern residential oil burner have been evaluated in several toxicological assay systems. Bacterial mutagens were detected in extracts from both the particulate and vapor phase emissions. Effluents from continuous operation were an order of magnitude less mutagenic than those from cyclic (5 min on, 10 min off) operations. No difference in the yield of bacterial muta...

Hexavalent chromium Cr (VI) used in shielded metal arc welding is widely recognized to act as a carcinogen, mutagen and teratogen. The carcinogenic potential of metals is a major issue in defining human health risk from exposure. Hence in the present investigation, 66 welders and 60 control subjects with similar mean ages, smoking prevalences and alcohol consumption were enrolled for DNA damage...

CHARGE association is a non-random collection of congenital anomalies. The condition is becoming more widely known to medical and educational professionals. The number of children diagnosed is increasing, probably because of the greater awareness of this condition. This paper considers some of the long-term management problems which are often deferred in the early months, when acute life threat...

subsequent birth of normal children occur frequently enough to be frustrating for those involved in the evaluation of malformed children and counseling of the parents. The fetal hydantoin syndrome, while a recognizable pattern of malformation in some patients,2 is not such a well defined entity as, for example, achondroplasia or Down syndrome is. It is not uncommon for one to see a child with s...

The present study aimed to present an overview of recent national and international research on the Zika virus (ZIKV), as well as to explore possible action plans focused on children, their families and the health teams involved.Therefore, the study proposes the implementation of tracking systems in order to identify, describe and characterize the potential correlates of prenatal exposure to ZI...

We reviewed the world literature concerning the reproductive effects of Lyme disease (LD). Borrelia burgdorferi, which is the etiology of LD, is a spirochete and, as such, may share the potential for causing fetal infection, which may occur in the setting of maternal spirochetemia. Information concerning the effects of gestational LD derives from case reports and series, epidemiologic studies, ...

The study published in this issue of Birth Defects Research Part A, “Bendectin and Birth Defects: Ecological Analysis,” by Kutcher et al. (2002) deals with two aspects pertaining to the effects of Bendectin. It is an excellent research article. The first area investigated was related to the question as to whether Bendectin was a human teratogen based on ecological analysis. The second area inve...