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DOI: 10.1055/s-2000-12953
Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York
Homocysteine Metabolism and Effects of Folic Acid Supplementation in Patients Affected with Spina Bifida
Publication History
Publication Date:
31 December 2000 (online)
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Folic acid supplementation around conception decreases the risk of having offspring with a neural tube defect. However, the aetiology is often still unknown. This study investigated whether spina bifida patients have lower blood folate and higher fasting and post-methionine-load plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) concentrations than control patients. Moreover, the effects of supplementation with 500 µg folic acid/d on folate and tHcy concentrations were determined. Spina bifida patients (n = 12) and disabled control patients (n = 15) received 4 weeks of placebo treatment followed by 4 weeks of intervention with 500 µg folic acid/d. Blood was collected at the start and after 4 and 8 weeks. A methionine-loading test was performed at the start and the end of the study. At baseline, no significant differences occurred between spina bifida and control patients. Folic acid supplementation significantly increased plasma and red blood cell folate concentrations in both groups. Folic acid decreased fasting tHcy concentrations in control patients by 1.6 ± 0.5 µmol/l (p < 0.01) and in spina bifida patients by 2.2 ± 1.3 µmol/l (p = 0.10). This study does not show a derangement in homocysteine metabolism in spina bifida compared to control patients. Moreover, folic acid supplementation seems at least as effective in spina bifida patients as in controls.
Key words
Spina bifida - Homocysteine - Folate - Folic acid
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Régine Steegers-Theunissen
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology University Hospital St. Radboud Nijmegen
P. O. Box 9101
6500 HB Nijmegen
The Netherlands
Email: r.steegers@MIE.KUN.NL