Neural tube defects and serum zinc.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Folic Acid, published as a randomized controlled trial.

To investigate the relationship of zinc in the causation of neural tube defects and so explore the possible role as a cause of these defects.

Who Took Part

PubMed tags the participants as women only.

One control was selected from each of the four randomisation groups: 1. no extra vitamins; 2. folic acid supplementation alone; 3. folic acid and other vitamin supplementation; and 4. other vitamin supplementation, such that it was matched with an NTD case by study centre, maternal age (the year of birth differed at most by one year) and duration of storage of the serum sample (in most instances to within the same year).

The serum samples were collected from women at entry to the trial, immediately before the women became pregnant and at about 12 weeks of pregnancy.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and multicenter study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Folic Acid group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Running at several centres spread the Folic Acid study over different clinics and patient groups.

A prospective case-control study using serum samples stored at -40 degrees C.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Case-Control Studies, Folic Acid, Neural Tube Defects and Zinc.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and multicenter study of Folic Acid.

Results are reported in around 3 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 1993 (British journal of obstetrics and gynaecology), a journal based in England.

More context: all human trials.