Problems of using data from teratology information services (TIS) to identify putative teratogens

✍ Scribed by Mart�nez-Fr�as, M.L.; Rodr�guez-Pinilla, E.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 15 KB
• Volume: 60
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0040-3709
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9926(199908)60:2<54::aid-tera3>3.0.co;2-3

✦ Synopsis

We read with great interest the Editorial on the need for inclusion and exclusion criteria for the structural abnormalities recorded in children born from exposed pregnancies (Holmes, '99), and we agree with the editorial proposal. However, we would like to draw attention to the fact that the data gathered by the Teratology Information Services (TIS) have a number of important biases, which should also be taken into consideration. Moreover, controlling these biases in the analyses is very difficult, if not impossible. For this reason we should be very cautious about the conclusions on the possible teratogenicity or safety obtained with information from TIS. Nevertheless, there is an increasing number of publications using data from TIS, aimed at identifying putative human teratogens or testing the safety or risk of different exposures (Jones et al., '89;