A routine prenatal ultrasound can identify early signs of autism, study finds. Summary: A routine prenatal ultrasound in the second trimester can identify early signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a new study has found.
Fetal abnormalities in the urinary system, heart, brain and elsewhere, detected via prenatal ultrasound, may signal autism spectrum disorder (ASD), new research suggests.
The chances of anyone in the general population having an autistic child are about 1 in 1000 or 0.1%. So, while the risk is real, the chances of you and your husband having an autistic child are still very low.
There are many different factors that have been identified that may make a child more likely to have ASD, including environmental, biologic, and genetic factors.
Since autism is less prevalent in females, autism was always thought to be passed down from the mother. However, research suggests that autism genes are usually inherited from the father.
Does The Father Or Mother Carry The Autism Gene? Autism was always thought to have a maternal inheritance component, however, research suggests that the rarer variants associated with the disorder are usually inherited from the father.
During this early pregnancy period, important brainstem mechanisms form the foundation for subsequent brain development. So far, research indicates that increased risk for autism traces most strongly to what happens during the first and second trimesters.
Epidemiological studies have shown that hormone abnormalities in pregnant women are a significant potential risk factor for autism in offspring and that sex hormones may be part of the cause of autism.
They also noted that autism was most associated with anomalies in the urinary system, heart, head, and brain. They further found that those with autism tended to have a narrower head and a relatively wider ocular distance compared to typically developing fetuses.
In order to identify a possible autistic precocious biomarker, a lot of studies used quantitative EEG for the diagnosis of autism. The most significant finding in this field is a decreased inter- and intra-hemispheric coherence in subjects with autism compared to healthy controls.
Currently, there is no definitive laboratory test for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), though active research is looking for “biomarkers” including genetic tests and brain imaging tests, differences on electroencephalograms (EEGs), and brain imaging tests.
Though brain scans cannot yet reliably diagnose ADHD, some scientists are using them to identify environmental and prenatal factors that affect symptoms, and to better understand how stimulant medications trigger symptom control vs. side effects.
It's not clear precisely how prenatal vitamins might influence autism risk. It's also unclear which nutrient in the supplements is most beneficial. Some studies have linked a lack of folic acid, iron or vitamin D to autism.
That said, adequate prenatal iron intake is one simple way to protect your fetus' developing brain. In addition, a 2022 meta-analysis of 10 studies found that taking folic acid in early pregnancy significantly lowers the autism risk. 9 Taing 400 micrograms (mcg) was associated with a reduced risk of autism.
High levels of stress during pregnancy may also be connected to autism in children. This connection appears to have the most impact when the parent experiences stress between weeks 25 and 28 of pregnancy.
At the same time, firstborn children also showed an increased incidence — 30 percent more than second-borns and 70 percent more than those born third or later.
Children who have an older sister with autism are more likely to also have the condition than are those who have an older brother on the spectrum. The risk is higher among younger brothers than younger sisters.
So if there's no genetic history in the family, where does a child's autism come from? A key fact has come to light within the last couple of years: many autism-causing genetic mutations are “spontaneous.” They occur in the affected child, but in neither parent.
Family ties: Children with an autistic parent or siblings have nine times the usual odds of having autism. Children in families with a history of brain conditions are at increased odds of being autistic, a large study in Sweden suggests1.
ASD has a tendency to run in families, but the inheritance pattern is usually unknown. People with gene changes associated with ASD generally inherit an increased risk of developing the condition, rather than the condition itself.