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Article: Birth defects too often blamed on alcohol.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- November 11, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Physicians and geneticists too readily blame birth defects on a mother's use of alcohol during pregnancy and may miss other genetic causes of the abnormalities, says an Arizona researcher. In a study of children previously identified as suffering from the effects of fetal exposure to alcohol, he found that 13 percent suffered from misdiagnosed genetic problems.
"Some of these children were labeled as suffering from mild cases of fetal alcohol effects, when in fact they have something entirely different," says H. Eugene Hoyme of the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center in Tucson. He urges doctors and geneticists to eliminate the diagnosis of fetal alcohol ...