The premise is a must when talking about association studies: there is no relationship of cause and effect. That said, however, the association found by Dutch researchers – e just described in one of the most prestigious journals devoted to human reproduction studies, Human Reproduction – it is at least disturbing: the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy, even in small quantities, is linked to changes in the face of the fetus. With a lot of related photo.
Let’s try to understand what the researchers have analyzed and what conclusions they have arrived at. In the meantime, let’s start with the tool used, artificial intelligence (AI) based on machine learning, capable of discerning a link between changes in the shape of the baby’s face and the amount of alcohol consumed by the mother, both before becoming pregnant and during pregnancy.
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The study is the first ever to investigate the association in infants born to mothers who drank alcohol up to three months before becoming pregnant and discontinued it during pregnancy. Furthermore, the association with the altered shape of the face was found even with less than 12g of alcohol per week, the equivalent of a small 175ml glass of wine or a 330ml beer. The finding is interesting because face shape can be an indicator of health and developmental problems.
Second Gennady Roshchupkinprofessor at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, who led the study, “The face is a mirror that reflects the child’s overall health. Pre-birth exposure to alcohol can have significant adverse effects on development and if the mother If you regularly drink large quantities of alcohol, you can get FASD, the fetal alcohol syndrome that can also be found in the faces of children”.
What is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome?
FASD is a combination of growth retardation, abnormal facial development and neurological damage. Symptoms include cognitive impairment, ADHD, learning disabilities, memory and behavioral problems, speech and language delays. Fasd is caused by the ingestion of alcohol during pregnancy, especially in large quantities. Until now, however, little was known about the effect of limited alcohol consumption on a child’s facial development and health.
The researchers used AI and deep learning to analyze three-dimensional images of children at 9 (3149 children) and 13 years old (2477). Children who were part of the ongoing Generation R study based on the study of pregnant women and their children from pregnancy onwards. The children in this study were born between April 2009 and January 2006.
A special algorithm
“The face has a complex shape, 3D images help a lot but advanced algorithms are needed for the analysis – explained Professor Roshchupkin – for this we have developed an algorithm based on AI, which takes high-resolution 3D images of the face and produces 200 unique measures of somatic traits. Which we analyzed to find associations with prenatal alcohol exposure and developed a heat map that shows the particular facial features associated with maternal alcohol consumption.”
Information on maternal alcohol consumption was taken from questionnaires completed by women in early-mid and late stages of pregnancy. The researchers created three groups: mothers who did not drink before and during pregnancy (control group), mothers who drank in the three months preceding pregnancy but who stopped when they found out they were pregnant, and mothers who drank during pregnancy , including those who only drank during the first trimester and then continued throughout their pregnancy.
Meaningful associations
“We found statistically significant associations between prenatal alcohol exposure and facial shape in 9-year-olds. And the more alcohol the mothers drank, the more statistically significant the changes were. The most common traits were shorter nose, tip of upturned nose, altered chin,” she said Xianjing Liufirst author of the study and a student of Roshchupkin’s group, which developed the algorithm.
“In the group of pregnancy-drinking moms, we found that even though the moms drank very little, less than 12 g a week, the association between alcohol exposure and facial shape could still be observed. This is the first time in absolute that with such low levels an association has been highlighted”. Weaker association in older children, and no significant association in 13-year-olds.
No dose is safe
“Perhaps other environmental factors come into play as we grow older and these changes may diminish or be obscured by normal growth patterns. But that does not mean that the effects of alcohol go away. In any case, the crucial message that there are no safe pregnancy and that it is recommended to stop drinking before conception to ensure optimal health of the mother and the development of the fetus,” concluded Roshchupkin.