Folic Acid and the Prevention of Neural-Tube Defects

To the Editor: In his Perspective article on folic acid and the prevention of neural-tube defects, Wald (Jan. 8 issue) 1 overestimates the amount of folic acid needed to achieve blood folate levels that provide protection against neural-tube defects. The one study 2 that actually measured folate lev...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe New England journal of medicine Vol. 350; no. 21; pp. 2209 - 2211
Main Authors Mills, James L, Signore, Caroline C
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Massachusetts Medical Society 20.05.2004
Subjects
Anemia - diagnosis
Canada - epidemiology
Cardiovascular Diseases - prevention & control
Dietary Supplements
Female
Folic Acid - administration & dosage
Folic Acid - blood
Food, Fortified
Humans
Neural Tube Defects - epidemiology
Neural Tube Defects - prevention & control
Pregnancy - blood
United States - epidemiology
Vitamin B 12 Deficiency - diagnosis
Canada
United States
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Summary:To the Editor: In his Perspective article on folic acid and the prevention of neural-tube defects, Wald (Jan. 8 issue) 1 overestimates the amount of folic acid needed to achieve blood folate levels that provide protection against neural-tube defects. The one study 2 that actually measured folate levels in affected pregnancies showed a “dose response” curve, with most of the benefit occurring in women with low red-cell folate levels. The current fortification regimen has increased red-cell folate levels by approximately 50 percent and thus should be preventing many folate-related neural-tube defects. Wald's statement that rates of neural-tube defects in the United States . . .
Bibliography:SourceType-Other Sources-1
content type line 63
ObjectType-Correspondence-1
ObjectType-Commentary-2
ISSN:0028-4793
1533-4406
DOI:10.1056/NEJM200405203502120