Medical Genetics Research Unit, University of British Columbia, Children's & Women's Hospital, 4500 Oak Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet. 2011 Aug 15;157C(3):170-4. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.c.30302. Epub 2011 Jul 15.
The only way we can be certain that an exposure is teratogenic in humans is to recognize that it causes birth defects in babies. The goal of clinical teratology research is, therefore, to identify when a teratogenic exposure has harmed babies as quickly and effectively as possible. We use several kinds of human data to characterize teratogenic effects-case reports, case series, pregnancy registries, cohort studies, case-control studies, and record linkage studies. Each approach can be helpful, but each has limitations as well. Drawing a causal inference requires analysis of all available data, their consistency, and their biological plausibility.
我们能够确定某种暴露对人类具有致畸性的唯一方法是认识到它会导致婴儿出现出生缺陷。因此，临床致畸学研究的目标是尽快、尽可能有效地识别出致畸性暴露对婴儿造成的伤害。我们使用多种人类数据来描述致畸效应——病例报告、病例系列、妊娠登记、队列研究、病例对照研究和记录链接研究。每种方法都可能有帮助，但也都有其局限性。得出因果推论需要对所有可用数据进行分析，包括它们的一致性和生物学合理性。
