Trial reportBirth defects research. Part A, Clinical and molecular teratology2013
A pilot study using residual newborn dried blood spots to assess the potential role of cytomegalovirus and Toxoplasma gondii in the etiology of congenital hydrocephalus.
Trial report in Birth defects research. Part A, Clinical and molecular teratology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cranial Ultrasound in the Management of Hydrocephalus in Newborns: A Case Series.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The "microcephalic hydrocephalus" paradox as a paradigm of altered neural stem cell biology.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2024Article
- Cytomegalovirus infections in infants in Uganda: Newborn-mother pairs, neonates with sepsis, and infants with hydrocephalus.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2022Article
- Children hydrocephalus in Togo: etiologies, treatment, and outcomes.Surgical neurology international · 2022Article
- Congenital Hydrocephalus and Associated Risk Factors: An Institution-Based Case-Control Study, Dessie Town, North East Ethiopia.Pediatric health, medicine and therapeutics · 2022Article
- Association of Severe Hydrocephalus With Congenital Zika Syndrome.JAMA neurology · 2019Article
- Infantile hydrocephalus: a review of epidemiology, classification and causes.European journal of medical genetics · 2014Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCongenital hydrocephalus is a condition characterized by accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles of the brain. Prenatal infections are risk factors for some birth defects. This pilot study investigated whether residual dried blood spots (DBS) could be used to assess infections as risk factors for birth defects by examining the associations between prenatal infection with Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) or cytomegalovirus (CMV) with congenital hydrocephalus.
methodsCase-infants with hydrocephalus (N=410) were identified among live-born infants using birth defects surveillance systems in California, North Carolina, and Texas. Control-infants without birth defects were randomly selected from the same geographic areas and time periods as case-infants (N=448). We tested residual DBS from case- and control-infants for T. gondii immunoglobulin M and CMV DNA. When possible, we calculated crude odds ratios (cORs) and confidence intervals (CIs).
resultsEvidence for prenatal T. gondii infection was more common among case-infants (1.2%) than control-infants (0%; p=0.11), and evidence for prenatal CMV infection was higher among case-infants (1.5%) than control-infants (0.7%; cOR: 2.3; 95% CI: 0.48, 13.99).
conclusionsPrenatal infections with T. gondii and CMV occurred more often among infants with congenital hydrocephalus than control-infants, although differences were not statistically significant. This pilot study highlighted some challenges in using DBS to examine associations between certain infections and birth defects, particularly related to reduced sensitivity and specimen storage conditions. Further study with increased numbers of specimens and higher quality specimens should be considered to understand better the contribution of these infections to the occurrence of congenital hydrocephalus.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.