[Survey of relation of maternal age, job, smoking and use of folic acid and other drugs with neural tube defects]

ABSTRACT

Neural Tube Defects [N.T.Ds] are the most common anomalies of the central nervous system which cause due to the defect of the closing of neural tube during the third and forth week of intra uterine life. It is estimated that 300/000 children born with these anomalies each year. Recent studies show the role of both environmental and genetic factors in the occurrence of N.T.Ds. Evaluation of relation between maternal age, job, smoking, use of folic acid and other drugs during pregnancy and N.T.Ds. In a case-control and retrospective study, we studied the data from 51 N.T.Ds infant and the same number of normal babies. Chi- square test was used for statistical analysis and P< 0.05 was significant. There was significant relation between maternal smoking, agricultural and animal husbandry job and not use of folic acid with occurrence of N.T.Ds. neural Tube Defects can cause by smoking of mother, her agricultural and animal husbandry activities and not using of folic acid tablet during pregnancy. Most of these children were born from mothers less than 35 years old