IVF. Babies have a "Higher risk of Cerebral Palsy"

Posted by Mike Kremer on Feb 08, 2002 at 17:40
usera074.dsl.pipex.com (62.188.48.74)

IVF Babies have 'Higher risk of Cerebal Palsy'

Department of Women and Child Health, University Children's Hospital, 751 85 Uppsala, Sweden (Prof
B Strömberg MD); Department of Clinical Sciences, Paediatrics, Umeå University, Umeå (Prof G Dahlquist MD); Centre for Epidemiology.

BACKGROUND
There is an absence of population-based long-term studies on the risk of neurological sequelae in children born after, in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). Our aim was to compare the frequency of such problems between IVF-born children and natural conceived children.

METHODS
We did a population-based retrospective cohort study in which we compared development of neurological problems in 5680 children born after IVF, with 11,360 matched controls. For 2,060 twins born after IVF, a second set of controls (n=4120), all twins, were selected. We obtained data on neurological problems from the records of the Swedish habilitation centres.(Clinics and Hospitals)
FINDINGS
Children born after IVF are more likely to need habilitation services than controls (odds ratio 1·7, 95% CI 1·3-2·2). For singletons, the risk was 1·4 (1·0-2·1). The most common neurological diagnosis was cerebral palsy, for which children born after IVF had an increased risk of 3·7 (2·0-6·6), and IVF singletons of 2·8 (1·3-5·8). Suspected developmental delay was increased four-fold (1·9-8·3) in children born after IVF. Twins born after IVF did not differ from control twins with respect to risk of neurological sequelae. Low-birthweight and premature infants were more likely to need habilitation than fullterm babies. Maternal age did not affect risk.
*INTERPRETATION
*Our study suggests that children born after IVF *have an increased risk of developing neurological *problems, especially cerebral palsy. These risks *are largely due to the high frequency of twin *pregnancies, low birthweight, and prematurity *among babies born after IVF. To limit these risks, *we recommend that only one embryo should be *transferred during IVF.
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STUDY PROTOCOL
Since the 1970s, Sweden has had a nationwide organisation of habilitation centres for children with disabilities, whereby children and adolescents with different neurological impairments, disabilities, and handicaps receive free medical, psychological, social, and educational care in accordance with their individual needs. All 26 childhood disability centres in Sweden participated in our study. Since staff at the habitation centres were unaware of whether or not a child was born after IVF treatment. We diligently searched the records of all the centres to ascertain whether each child had received IVF treatment or not.
Children who attended a habilitation centre had between one and five different neurological diagnoses. A researcher (BS) classified all diagnoses, according to the INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF DISEASES, 10th edition (ICD-10). 138 different diagnoses were reported to us, and classified into one of 20 groups:-
Mental retardation, Infantile autism, Behavioural disorders, Speech disorders, Suspected developmental delay, Cerebral palsy, Congenital malformations, Chromosomal aberrations, Neuromuscular disorders, Torticollis, Brachial plexus injury, disorder of the Joints, disorders of the Eye, Hearing loss, Hydrocephalus, Habitual tip-toeing, Accidents, Seizures, other Neurological disorders, and other disorders.
Thus, all children with mental retardation, independent of severity, were allocated to one group, and all cerebral palsy syndromes were combined . If a child had more than one diagnosis, we registered the one reported by the habilitation centre as the child's major diagnosis. If there was any doubt, cerebral palsy or mental retardation was chosen.
-------------The full article plus charts is published in todays "Lancet Medical Journal"
Vol: 359, Number 9305, Feb: 9th 2002--------------

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