Tuesday, June 5, 2007

The Diabetes Thing

Today I learned that the term "the syndrome of caudal regression" was first used in 1960 by Dr. Bernard Duhamel. I am still unclear about whether the term CRS replaced SA or means the same thing. I have thought that CRS is the older term, but others have disagreed with me.

It seems that researchers are always trying to make the case that CRS is related to maternal diabetes. Yet they admit that this is the cas e only 16% of the time. That leaves 84% totally unknown. Hmmm....

The article below discusses twins, one with CRS and one without. It seems that there is more to the situation than the maternal environment....

Zaw W, Stone DG: J Perinatol 22, 171-174, 2002.

Here is a strange one about an association with retinoic acid. They are adding another teratogen on top of maternal diabetes to cause CRS.

Chan BWH, Chan K-S, Koide T, et al: Maternal diabetes increases the risk of caudal regression caused by retinoic acid. Diabetes 51:2811-2816, 2002.

Another teratogen one, which states: "It is postulated, therefore, that diabetes may act as a coteratogen enhancing the teratogenic effect of other insults but may not itself cause malformations."

McCarter RJ, Kessler II: Is diabetes mellitus a teratogen or a coteratogen? Am J Epidemiol 125(2):195-205, 1987.

But what about when the mother does NOT have diabetes and took good care of herself, worked in a nontoxic job, took prenatal vitamins and folic acid for 3 years before conceiving....? I guess I shouldn't dwell on this, but when some pregnant women are literally on drugs and I took care of myself, yet I was the one to have this.... My son is wonderful, and I really can't imagine him any other way. I am just still wondering what is going on here and why this happened. I guess there really is no answer.

1 comment:

hostingexposed said...

It's called time and unforseen occurance. The simple fact is we have imperfect bodies, and as a result, we have slight mutations in our chromosomes, genes, etc. It's not your fault nor is there anything that could be done about it. My mother had two miscarriges and was very healthy, it's no ones fault, sometimes these things happen. Keep your head up :)