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Essay On Prenatal Inflammation

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Prenatal Inflammation Linked to Autism Grace Fenton
During early pregnancy, maternal inflammation may be related to an increased risk of autism in children. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences recently did a study on mothers with elevated C-reactive protein. Included in the study were results showing that mothers with CRP levels in the top 20th percentile, were 43 times more likely to have a child with autism. This is an important discovery in that now, scientists can diagnose it early on, they can prepare parents for raising an autistic child. In the study, scientists were able to figure out that elevated levels of CRP is a leading cause for mothers to have autistic kids. I chose this topic because I work for the Red …show more content…

Dr. Alan Brown, an MD and professor at Columbia University, was the leading doctor of this study. “We don’t know enough yet to suggest routine testing of pregnant mothers for CRP for this reason alone,” he says. “However, exercising precautionary measures to prevent infections during pregnancy may be of considerable value.” The study is still new, and doctors are not sure that it means much at this point, as Dr. Brown says, more research and validation is needed for it to become routine, but they are taking careful steps in early diagnosis of autism.
So far, no other doctors or research teams have assessed the connection between CRP levels and autism. However, Alycia Halladay, a senior director of environmental and clinical sciences, says that “While research has shown that maternal infection is a risk factor for autism, this is the first study to identify a biomarker of that infection during pregnancy. Future studies may help explain how infections or other inflammatory events during pregnancy interact with known autism risk genes,” she says. “Such studies may also lead to protective intervention measures.” While there aren’t any other studies on Brown’s initial study, others agree with and support the results and means.
Another way of knowing whether or not your child has autism, is waiting until he or she is born and testing their social and communication behaviors. In

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