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The researchers have developed a new blood test for pregnant women, which can, with an accuracy rate of nearly 90%, predict the likelihood that a child will be diagnosed with autism.
According to studies, if a mother has ever had a child with autism, the risk of having a second child with a developmental disability is about 18.7%, while the risk in the general population is about 1.7%.
In the study, led by Juergen Hahn, a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, metabolites of folate-dependent transmethylation and transsulfuration-dependent biochemical pathways in pregnant women were measured to determine whether by her metabolic profile.
Pregnant women who had an autistic child before were divided into two groups based on their child's diagnosis, whether autistic or not.
Then, these mothers were compared to a group of control mothers who had never had autism before.
The results, published in the journal Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, show that it is not possible to determine during pregnancy whether autism is diagnosed at age 3, but that differences in plasma metabolites indicate risk relative (18.7% vs. 1.7%) to have an autistic child.
"These are exciting results because they suggest differences in certain metabolic processes that potentially play a role in increasing the risk of having a child with autism," Hahn said.
"However, it would be highly desirable that a prediction based on physiological measurements could be made to determine the risk group at which a potential mother falls," Hahn noted.
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