ArticleBMC pregnancy and childbirth2021
Objective assessment of alcohol consumption in early pregnancy using phosphatidylethanol: a cross-sectional study.
Article in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Association of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure With Brain Development During the First 1000 Days of Life: A Systematic Review.Prenatal diagnosis · 2024Pooled it
- Breast milk Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol in cannabis users during the postpartum period: correlation between breast milk, maternal urine and saliva samples during early lactation.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Beyond the baseline: quantification of two phosphatidylethanol homologues in whole blood by LC-MS-MS and retrospective data analysis from a National Reference Laboratory.Journal of analytical toxicology · 2025Article
- The interaction of genetic sex and prenatal alcohol exposure on health across the lifespan.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2023Review
- Alcohol exposure before and during pregnancy is associated with reduced fetal growth: the Safe Passage Study.BMC medicine · 2023Article
- Piloting a complex intervention to promote a tobacco and alcohol-free pregnancy: the Smoke and Alcohol Free with EHealth and Rewards (SAFER) pregnancy study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2023Article
- Phosphatidylethanol in Maternal or Neonatal Blood to Detect Alcohol Exposure during Pregnancy: A Systematic Review.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Prenatal maternal alcohol exposure: diagnosis and prevention of fetal alcohol syndrome.Obstetrics & gynecology science · 2022Article
- Minimizing sample bias due to stigmatized behaviours: the representativeness of participants in a cohort study of alcohol in pregnancy.BMC medical research methodology · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlcohol consumption during pregnancy is associated with major birth defects and developmental disabilities. Questionnaires concerning alcohol consumption during pregnancy underestimate alcohol use while the use of a reliable and objective biomarker for alcohol consumption enables more accurate screening. Phosphatidylethanol can detect low levels of alcohol consumption in the previous two weeks. In this study we aimed to biochemically assess the prevalence of alcohol consumption during early pregnancy using phosphatidylethanol in blood and compare this with self-reported alcohol consumption.
methodsTo evaluate biochemically assessed prevalence of alcohol consumption during early pregnancy using phosphatidylethanol levels, we conducted a prospective, cross-sectional, single center study in the largest tertiary hospital of the Netherlands. All adult pregnant women who were under the care of the obstetric department of the Erasmus MC and who underwent routine blood testing at a gestational age of less than 15 weeks were eligible. No specified informed consent was needed.
resultsThe study was conducted between September 2016 and October 2017. In total, we received 1,002 residual samples of 992 women. After applying in- and exclusion criteria we analyzed 684 samples. Mean gestational age of all included women was 10.3 weeks (SD 1.9). Of these women, 36 (5.3 %) tested positive for phosphatidylethanol, indicating alcohol consumption in the previous two weeks. Of women with a positive phosphatidylethanol test, 89 % (n = 32) did not express alcohol consumption to their obstetric care provider.
conclusionsOne in nineteen women consumed alcohol during early pregnancy with a high percentage not reporting this use to their obstetric care provider. Questioning alcohol consumption by an obstetric care provider did not successfully identify (hazardous) alcohol consumption. Routine screening with phosphatidylethanol in maternal blood can be of added value to identify women who consume alcohol during pregnancy.
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