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.
Doctors look at the child's developmental history and behavior to make a diagnosis. ASD can sometimes be detected at 18 months of age or younger. By age 2, a diagnosis by an experienced professional can be considered reliable. However, many children do not receive a final diagnosis until much older.
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.
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.
Environmental factors, which include prenatal circumstances or events, all play a very important role in the early development of autism, yet the exact mechanism remains largely undetermined. In this review, we promote a 'rethinking' of autism as a neurodevelopmental disease that originates from early life development.
Inheritance. 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.
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.
According to the CDC, the prevalence of autism in the United States is approximately 1 in 54 children. This means that the odds of having a child with autism are less than 2%.
Autism can be seen by doctors at a very early stage of pregnancy, even during the second trimester. To detect typically requires brain scans and additional checkups. Nothing conclusive can be made until a woman has delivered the baby and the child is examined further by psychologists.
So, are Down syndrome and autism the same thing or the same disorder? No. They are distinct disorders with different causes that may show some similar symptoms, but also differences.
However, brain scans using MRI and other methods do indeed help to recognize targets for the treatment of autism and may even help to diagnose autism in the future.
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.
Some autistic children don't show traits of the condition until age 5 or later, new research suggests1. Others show a few mild features at age 3 but only later meet the criteria for diagnosis. The findings suggest that autism traits are not always apparent by 24 months, the typical age for screening.
Summary. Determining pregnancy-related risk factors for autism is an ongoing area of research. Some risk factors have more evidence of an association than others. Taking certain antiepileptic drugs, being older parents, having a preterm birth, and developing gestational diabetes are believed to be risk factors.
Children with an autistic parent or sibling have 9 times the usual odds of autism and 4.1 times the odds of having autism with intellectual disability.
Advances in diagnostic capabilities and greater understanding and awareness of autism spectrum disorder seem to be largely driving the increase, the Rutgers researchers said. But there's probably more to the story: Genetic factors, and perhaps some environmental ones, too, might also be contributing to the trend.
A common question after an autism diagnosis is what is the cause of autism. We know that there's no one cause of autism. Research suggests that autism develops from a combination of genetic and nongenetic, or environmental, influences. These influences appear to increase the risk that a child will develop autism.
It's something you're born with. Signs of autism might be noticed when you're very young, or not until you're older. If you're autistic, you're autistic your whole life. Autism is not a medical condition with treatments or a "cure".
There's no way to prevent autism spectrum disorder, but there are treatment options. Early diagnosis and intervention is most helpful and can improve behavior, skills and language development. However, intervention is helpful at any age.
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.