Correction: Prenatal and Postnatal Exposure to DDT by Breast Milk Analysis in Canary Islands.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Breast Milk and Hair Testing to Detect Illegal Drugs, Nicotine, and Caffeine in Donors to a Human Milk Bank.

Background: The use of illegal drugs and tobacco is an exclusion criteria for accepting a nursing mother as a milk donor. The detection window for human milk testing is typically a few hours. Hair testing has been considered the gold standard to assess chronic exposure to these toxic substances.

Drugs of abuse in maternal hair and paired neonatal meconium: an objective assessment of foetal exposure to gestational consumption.

In a prospective sample of 80 mother-infant dyads, we investigated whether drugs of abuse in maternal hair measured during the pregnancy trimesters were also present in neonatal meconium. Principal drugs of abuse were analyzed in the three consecutive maternal hair segments and meconium samples by ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry assay. Of the 80 mothers, 32 (40%) presented one or more hair shafts with at least one of the analyzed drugs of abuse and/or its metabolites.

Segmental hair analysis to assess effectiveness of single-session motivational intervention to stop ethanol use during pregnancy.

Background: This study aimed to test the effectiveness of single-session motivational intervention to stop ethanol use during pregnancy using segmental hair analysis of ethyl glucuronide to objectively verify drinking behavior before and after intervention.

Methods: 168 pregnant women attending Hospital del Mar (Barcelona, Spain) for antenatal visit were included in the study and randomly assigned to one of two conditions: single-session motivational intervention (MI; N=83) or single-session educational control condition (ECC; N=85). Ethyl glucuronide was measured in maternal hair divided into three segments of 3 cm each corresponding to the three different gestation trimesters by a validated liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method.

Arsenic levels in immigrant children from countries at risk of consuming arsenic polluted water compared to children from Barcelona.

Arsenic is a highly toxic element that pollutes groundwater, being a major environmental problem worldwide, especially in the Bengal Basin. About 40% of patients in our outpatient clinics come from those countries, and there is no published data about their arsenic exposure. This study compares arsenic exposure between immigrant and native children.

Fetal exposure to ethanol: relationship between ethyl glucuronide in maternal hair during pregnancy and ethyl glucuronide in neonatal meconium.

Background: In recent years, fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) and ethyl glucuronide (EtG) in meconium emerged as reliable, direct biological markers for establishing gestational ethanol exposure. We investigated whether EtG in maternal hair measured during the three trimesters of pregnancy correlated with EtG and FAEEs in neonatal meconium.

Methods: In a prospective sample of 80 mother-infant dyads from Barcelona (Spain), we measured EtG and FAEE in maternal hair segments and meconium samples using a validated UHPLC-MS/MS method.

Maternal and neonatal hair and breast milk in the assessment of perinatal exposure to drugs of abuse.

Perinatal exposure to one or more drugs of abuse can affect the neonate temporarily or permanently. In addition to meconium, the evaluation of perinatal exposure to drugs of abuse has been achieved by testing biological matrices coming from the newborn (neonatal hair) and from the pregnant or nursing mother (maternal hair and breast milk). These matrices have the advantage of noninvasive collection and account for a sizable time window of active and passive exposure.

Prenatal ethanol exposure and placental hCG and IGF2 expression.

Introduction: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is the main cause of preventable non-genetic mental retardation. Diagnosis of prenatal exposure to ethanol (PEE) is based on questionnaires and biomarkers in perinatal matrices. Early diagnosis of FASD is important to mitigate secondary disabilities that will arise later in life.

Different exposure of infants and adults to ultrafine particles in the urban area of Barcelona.

Air pollutants have been linked with a number of adverse health effects. Children are especially sensitive, particularly when they get close to the exhaust emissions of the vehicles on the street. The objective of this study was to measure the different exposure of infants and adults to ultrafine particles (UFP) as a surrogate marker of air pollution and of risk of deleterious health effects.

Transient exposure to ethanol during zebrafish embryogenesis results in defects in neuronal differentiation: an alternative model system to study FASD.

Background: The exposure of the human embryo to ethanol results in a spectrum of disorders involving multiple organ systems, including the impairment of the development of the central nervous system (CNS). In spite of the importance for human health, the molecular basis of prenatal ethanol exposure remains poorly understood, mainly to the difficulty of sample collection. Zebrafish is now emerging as a powerful organism for the modeling and the study of human diseases.

Advances in the development of novel antioxidant therapies as an approach for fetal alcohol syndrome prevention.

Ethanol is the most common human teratogen, and its consumption during pregnancy can produce a wide range of abnormalities in infants known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). The major characteristics of FASD can be divided into: (i) growth retardation, (ii) craniofacial abnormalities, and (iii) central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction. FASD is the most common cause of nongenetic mental retardation in Western countries.

Transgenerational exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.

Traditionally, nicotine from second hand smoke (SHS), active or passive, has been considered the most prevalent substance of abuse used during pregnancy in industrialized countries. Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is associated with a variety of health effects, including lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Tobacco is also a major burden to people who do not smoke.

Prenatal and postnatal exposure to DDT by breast milk analysis in Canary Islands.

Introduction: The use of p,p'-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) has been banned since the late 1970s due to its toxicity. However, its long half-life makes it persistent in the environment and, consequently, almost everyone has DDT residues in the body. Human milk constitutes an ideal non-conventional matrix to investigate environmental chronic exposure to organochlorine compounds (OCs) residues.

Ethanol cytotoxic effect on trophoblast cells.

Prenatal ethanol exposure may cause both, altered fetal neurodevelopment and impaired placental function. These disturbances can lead to growth retardation, which is one of the most prevalent features in Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). It is not known whether there is a specific pattern of cytotoxicity caused by ethanol that can be extrapolated to other cell types.

Assessment of prenatal exposure to arsenic in Tenerife Island.

Introduction: Increasing awareness of the potential chronic health effects of arsenic (As) at low exposure levels has motivated efforts to better understand impaired child development during pregnancy by biomarkers of exposure. The aims of this study were to evaluate the prenatal exposure to As by analysis of an alternative matrix (meconium), to examine its effects on neonatal outcomes and investigate the association with maternal lifestyle and dietary habits during pregnancy.

Methods: A transversal descriptive study was conducted in Tenerife (Spain).

Feto-placental morphological effects of prenatal exposure to drugs of abuse.

The aim of the study was to find morphological changes in the feto-placental unit due to prenatal exposure to drugs of abuse. A blind histomorphometric study was performed using 225 placentas. Based on meconium testing, the fetuses were classified as exposed or unexposed to opiates, cocaine, cannabis or alcohol.

[Alternative biological materials to detect prenatal exposure to drugs of abuse in the third trimester of pregnancy].

Introduction: Detection of prenatal drug abuse exposure is essential to ensure an appropriate monitoring of affected children. A maternal questionnaire is not an efficient screening tool. The usefulness of maternal hair and meconium as biological materials to assess this exposure has been described in last few years.

Determination of maternal-fetal biomarkers of prenatal exposure to ethanol: a review.

The deleterious effects exerted by prenatal ethanol exposure include physical, mental, behavioural and/or learning disabilities that are included in the term fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Objective assessment of exposure to ethanol at both prenatal and postnatal stages is essential for early prevention and intervention. Since pregnant women tend to underreport alcohol drinking by questionnaires, a number of biological markers have been proposed and evaluated for their capability to highlight gestational drinking behaviour.

Assessment of exposure to drugs of abuse during pregnancy by hair analysis in a Mediterranean island.

Aims:   This study aims to estimate the prevalence of drug use by pregnant women living in Ibiza, using structured interviews and biomarkers in maternal hair. In addition, the potentially detrimental effects of maternal drug abuse on their newborns were investigated. Ibiza has a large international night-life resort associated with clubs, music and use of recreational drugs.

Cocaine use during pregnancy assessed by hair analysis in a Canary Islands cohort.

Background: Drug use during pregnancy is difficult to ascertain, and maternal reports are likely to be inaccurate. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of illicit drug use among pregnant women by using maternal hair analysis.

Methods: A toxicological analysis of hair was used to detect chronic recreational drug use during pregnancy.

Hair analysis following chronic smoked-drugs-of-abuse exposure in adults and their toddler: a case report.

Introduction: Over the past two decades, the study of chronic cocaine and crack cocaine exposure in the pediatric population has been focused on the potential adverse effects, especially in the prenatal period and early childhood. Non-invasive biological matrices have become an essential tool for the assessment of a long-term history of drug of abuse exposure.

Case Report: We analyze the significance of different biomarker values in hair after chronic crack exposure in a two-year-old Caucasian girl and her parents, who are self-reported crack smokers.

[Validity of a maternal alcohol consumption questionnaire in detecting prenatal exposure].

Introduction: Ethanol consumption by pregnant women can produce severe effects in the foetus and the newborn, mainly in neurological and weight-height development, and are included in the term FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder). Questionnaires are the most used screening method to detect prenatal exposure, but a previous population study questioned its reliability. The objective of this study was to compare alcohol prenatal exposure detection by questionnaire compared with biomarkers in meconium.

Acute heroin intoxication in a baby chronically exposed to cocaine and heroin: a case report.

Introduction: Acute intoxication with drugs of abuse in children is often only the tip of the iceberg, actually hiding chronic exposure. Analysis using non-conventional matrices such as hair can provide long-term information about exposure to recreational drugs.

Case Presentation: We report the case of a one-month-old Caucasian boy admitted to our pediatric emergency unit with respiratory distress and neurological abnormalities.

A comprehensive review of assay methods to determine drugs in breast milk and the safety of breastfeeding when taking drugs.

Most of the licit and illicit drugs consumed by the breastfeeding woman pass into the milk and can modify the production, volume and composition of the milk, as well as hypothetically have short- and long-term harmful effects on the infant. There is much confusion in the scientific community regarding this issue: should a woman breastfeed her baby while continuing to use prescription drugs and/or drugs of abuse? There are many case reports of clinically significant toxicity in breast-fed infants from some substances used by mothers (such as irritability, vomiting, sedation, respiratory depression, shock), but there are too few data on studies conducted in breastfeeding women and their infants to make a realistic risk assessment. The objective measurement of a drug and/or metabolites in maternal milk is the first step when investigating the amount of drug excreted in milk and subsequently calculating the daily dose administered to the breast-fed infant.

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry assay for the simultaneous quantification of drugs of abuse in human placenta at 12th week of gestation.

We describe the development and validation of a method for the quantification of drugs of abuse, using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS), in human placenta. Concentration ranges covered were 5-500 ng/g for amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDMA, methadone, cocaine, benzoylecgonine, cocaethylene, morphine, 11-nor-9-carboxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, nicotine, and cotinine. Intra-assay and inter-assay imprecisions were less than 15.