Friday, December 30, 2016

Maternal smoking linked to high risk of kidney damage

Data on maternal smoking was collected during women's prenatal check-ups, and researchers also had records from their children's health check-ups at four, nine, 18 and 36 months of age. Photo: Shutterstock.com

Women who smoke during pregnancy may be more likely to have children with kidney damage than mothers who steer clear of cigarettes, a study suggests. Smoking during pregnancy has long been linked to preterm and underweight babies and a wide range of birth defects. The current study offers fresh evidence that the kidneys are among the organs at risk for damage, said lead author Maki Shinzawa, a public health researcher at Kyoto University in Japan. "Cigarette smoking releases nicotine and other harmful or potentially harmful substances, such as nitrogen oxide, polycarbonate, and carbon monoxide, some of which cross the placenta," Shinzawa said by e-mail. "Some of these trans-placental substances may affect foetal programming of the kidney during pregnancy." Shinzawa and colleagues examined data from 44,595 children. The outcome of interest was the presence of proteinuria at age 3 defined as urinary protein >/= 1+. Data on maternal smoking was collected during women's prenatal check-ups, and researchers also had records from their children's health check-ups at four, nine, 18 and 36 months of age. Overall, 79 per cent of women said they never smoked and another four per cent said...

from timesofmalta.com http://ift.tt/2iOKm8x
via IFTTT

No comments:

Post a Comment