Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0025362 (mental retardation)
 15,878 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Fourteen previously reported cases of the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) showed anomalies of brain structure varying in severity from microscopic disorganization of tissue structure, or abnormalities in neuronal or glial migration only visible microscopically, to complete or partial agenesis of regions such as the corpus callosum or cerebellum and large neuronal heteropias. The difficulty is illustrated of differentiating this type of damage, lacking in specificity and uniformity, from other syndromes of uncertain aetiology, such as De Lange, DiGeorge and Dubowitz, in at least one of which (DiGeorge syndrome) maternal alcoholism has been implicated. Similar brain damage is also seen in other conditions with known causes. In FAS and syndromes with this type of brain damage, most of the non-CNS features which make the conditions clinically recognizable may well be determined by timing or ancillary factors. Alcohol-related antenatal effects should not be identified to restrictively with FAS but should be considered in any condition of unknown aetiology with disorganization of brain structure and mental retardation.
 ...
PMID:Range of alcohol-induced damage in the developing central nervous system. 656 85

Signs and symptoms of 108 cases with alcohol embryopathy are presented. In addition to the well-known features (e.g., intrauterine growth retardation, microcephaly, mental retardation and typical craniofacial abnormalities), 29% of the cases had heart defects, 10% had G.U. tract malformations, and 1.8% had spina bifida. Brain malformations of 3 cases and 4 fetuses are described. Auxological measurements demonstrated some catch-up growth for height, but none for head size. Facial anomalies tended to normalize with increasing age. A proposal for classifying alcohol embryopathy (AE) into 3 degrees of severity is presented. Cases with the mild degree showed milder (or no) mental retardation compared to cases with the severe degree. The degree of AE was related to the stage of maternal alcoholism. With increasing severity of maternal alcoholism, the frequency and severity of AE among the offspring increased too. Among siblings, the elder siblings were less affected than the younger. This difference in outcome might be caused by the increasing inability of the alcoholic mothers to metabolize acetaldehyde. It is hypothesized that embryonic disturbance is not as dependent on the amount of daily alcohol consumption as it is on the stage of maternal alcoholism.
 ...
PMID:Alcohol embryopathy: some facts and speculations about pathogenesis. 719 89

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)is the leading cause of mental retardation worldwide but is also the foremost preventable cause of neurobehavioral and developmental abnormalities. It is equally important to know spectrum of disorders due to maternal alcoholism during pregnancy such as Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)in order to identify and treat affected child and family effectively. This article aims to create awareness among practising clinicians most of whom are only aware of phenotypical variant of FASD which is FAS.In this article we discuss those aspects of FASD relevant to the clinician such as: terminological ambiguity, assessment, diagnosis and prevention.
 ...
PMID:Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder(FASD. 2001 91