Table 1.
Clinical characteristics of cases
| Control (CON) n =19 | Spina bifida (SB) n = 22 | Anencephaly (AN) n = 15 | p valuea (CON vs SB; CON vs AN) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fetal GA (weeks); median (range) | 19.0 (14.5–23.9) | 21.8 (19.4–23.7) | 20.0 (16.7–23.3) | 0.0004, ns |
| Maternal age (years); median (range) | 30.0 (21.0–41.0) | 30.0 (20.1–40.5) | 30.4 (22.8–37.3) | ns, ns |
| Fetal sex; n male (% male) | 7 (37) | 16 (73) | 5 (33) | 0.03, ns |
| Fetal MTHFR677 genotype; n (%) | ns, ns | |||
| CC | 12 (63) | 11 (50) | 6 (40) | |
| CT | 7 (37) | 7 (32) | 8 (53) | |
| TT | 0 (0) | 4 (18) | 1 (7) | |
| Fetal MTHFR1298 genotype; n (%) | ns, ns | |||
| AA | 8 (42) | 14 (64) | 6 (40) | |
| AC | 9 (47) | 6 (27) | 8 (53) | |
| CC | 2 (11) | 2 (9) | 1 (7) | |
| Available tissues; n (%) | ||||
| Chorionic villi | 16 (84) | 22 (100) | 14 (93) | |
| Kidney | 16 (84) | 20 (91) | 8 (53) | |
| Spinal cord | 9 (47) | 17 (77) | 6 (40) | |
| Brain | 11 (58) | 9 (41) | – | |
| Muscle | 13 (68) | 10 (45) | 8 (53) | |
a p values calculated by Mann–Whitney test for continuous variables and Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables