TY - JOUR T1 - Vitamin supply in pregnancy for prevention of congenital birth defects. AU - Czeizel,Andrew E, AU - Bánhidy,Ferenc, PY - 2011/3/8/entrez PY - 2011/3/8/pubmed PY - 2011/11/16/medline SP - 291 EP - 6 JF - Current opinion in clinical nutrition and metabolic care JO - Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care VL - 14 IS - 3 N2 - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: After the short summary of history of primary prevention of neural tube defects by folic acid or folic acid-containing multivitamin supplementation during the periconception period, the three main unsolved problems are highlighted. RECENT FINDINGS: Both intervention trials and observational studies confirmed that this new primary preventive method is effective - beyond the prevention of neural-tube defects - in the reduction of the most common structural birth defects: congenital cardiovascular abnormalities. Nevertheless, this important progress in the field of congenital abnormalities is not appreciated appropriately. The periconception supplementation of both folic acid alone and folic acid-containing multivitamin is useful; however, the available data indicate the higher efficacy of multivitamins in the primary prevention of neural-tube defects and congenital cardiovascular abnormalities. The optimal dose of folic acid is not known though this knowledge would be necessary from both a scientific and practical aspect. SUMMARY: Periconception folic acid or folic acid-containing multivitamin supplementation has resulted in a breakthrough in the primary prevention of neural-tube defects, cardiovascular abnormalities and probably some other defects; however, extra efforts are necessary to eliminate folic acid or folic acid-containing multivitamin preventable congenital abnormalities. SN - 1473-6519 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/21378556/Vitamin_supply_in_pregnancy_for_prevention_of_congenital_birth_defects_ L2 - https://doi.org/10.1097/MCO.0b013e328344b288 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -