Neural Tube Defects: Prevention by Vitamin Supplements

Abstract

Neural tube defects (NTD) have been the object of more intense epidemiologic study than any other kind of birth defect. This is in part because of their ready recognition at birth (and, in recent years, before birth) and in part because their consequences are usually catastrophic: they kill or they cripple.

Regarding their cause, no single genetic or environmental agent has been identified (or is likely to be) and a multifactorial basis is assumed. If failure of neural tube closure results from the additive effects of several adverse factors, removal or correction of any one might shift the developmental balance across the threshold from NTD to normality.