[The zinc concentration of the maternal serum and the amniotic fluid in pregnancies with fetal neural defects in the second trimester].

The object of the investigation are 120 pregnancies in the second trimester, 38 of which are with prenatally proved neural tube defects of the fetus (anencephaly, spina bifida, hydrocephaly) and 82 with morphologically normal developed fetuses. There have been examined vein blood of the pregnant woman and amniotic fluid after transabdominal amniocentesis as there has been determined zinc status in both of the biological fluids. The average serum's zinc concentration at malformed pregnancies is without statistically considerable difference in comparison with this of the group--healthy pregnancies. Amendable zinc's concentration at cases with neural tube defects are statistical considerably higher than these in the control group. A survey of literary data, devoted to the theory of zinc deficiency as a teratogen in the human pregnancy, has been made during the last years. Up to the author's opinion, there have been represented the most acceptable explanations about the abnormal values of the zinc amenable concentration at neural tube defects in the fetus.