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. 2003 Sep;88(5):F383–F390. doi: 10.1136/fn.88.5.F383

Maternal docosahexaenoic acid supplementation during pregnancy and visual evoked potential development in term infants: a double blind, prospective, randomised trial

C Malcolm, D McCulloch, C Montgomery, A Shepherd, L Weaver
PMCID: PMC1721603  PMID: 12937042

Abstract

Aim: To test the hypothesis that maternal docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation during pregnancy enhances maturation of the visual evoked potential (VEP) in healthy term infants.

Methods: One hundred women were supplemented with either fish oil capsules rich in DHA (n = 50) or placebo capsules (n = 50) from week 15 of pregnancy until delivery. Total fatty acids in red blood cells and plasma were measured at weeks 15, 28, and 40 of pregnancy and at delivery in umbilical cord blood. Infant visual pathway development was assessed using VEPs recorded to flash stimuli shortly after birth and to both flash and pattern-reversal stimuli at 50 and 66 weeks post-conceptional age (PCA).

Results: Maternal supplementation did not significantly elevate the level of DHA in umbilical cord blood. Moreover, there were no significant differences in any of the VEP measures observed between supplementation groups. However, maturity of the pattern-reversal VEP at 50 and 66 weeks PCA was associated with DHA status of the infants at birth. Infants with higher DHA status, both as a concentration and as a percentage of total fatty acids, showed shorter P100 peak latencies of the pattern-reversal VEP than those with lower DHA status.

Conclusions: Maternal DHA supplementation during pregnancy did not enhance VEP maturation in healthy term infants. However, these results show an association between the DHA status of infants at term and early postnatal development of the pattern-reversal VEP, suggesting that DHA status itself may influence maturation of the central visual pathways.

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Figure 1.

Figure 1

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Peak latency of the pattern-reversal visual evoked potential recorded at 50 and 66 weeks post-conceptional age (PCA) in infants born to mothers supplemented with or without fish oil during pregnancy. The main effects of age group and check size are evident (p < 0.001), but significant differences based on maternal supplementation group (fish oil, placebo) by repeated measures analysis of variance were not observed. Values are means and bars represent SD.

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