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Background: Prenatal exposure to alcohol can adversely affect the fetus. We investigated the association between maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy and cryptorchidism (undescended testis) among newborn boys.Methods: We examined 2,496 boys in a prospective Danish-Finnish birth cohort study for cryptorchidism at birth (cryptorchid/healthy: 128/2,368) and at 3 months of age (33/2,215). Quantitative information on alcohol consumption (average weekly consumption of wine, beer, and spirits and number of binge episodes), smoking, and caffeine intake was obtained by questionnaire and/or interview once during the third trimester of pregnancy, before the outcome of the pregnancy was known. For a subgroup (n = 465), information on alcohol consumption was obtained twice during pregnancy by interviews.Results: We investigated maternal alcohol consumption both as a continuous variable and categorized. The odds for cryptorchidism increased with increasing weekly alcohol consumption. After adjustment for confounders (country, smoking, caffeine intake, binge episodes, social class, maternal age, parity, maturity, and birth weight) the odds remained significant for women with a weekly consumption of five or more alcoholic drinks (odds ratio = 3.10; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-9.10).Conclusions: Regular alcohol intake during pregnancy appears to increase the risk of congenital cryptorchidism in boys. The mechanisms for this association are unknown. Counseling of pregnant women with regard to alcohol consumption should also consider this new finding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to study the secular changes in anthropometric data over calendar time in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Growth curves were constructed for 270 patients based on height and weight registrations from the medical files. Height, body mass index (BMI), magnitude of pubertal peak height velocity (PHV) and age at PHV were analysed for possible secular changes from the 1960s to the 1990s. There was a significant change in height over calendar time in only 1 of 12 age groups. BMI showed a significant increase in 10- and 15-y-old boys and girls and in 5-y-old girls. The magnitude of PHV changed significantly over time, whereas age at PHV was constant. No significant changes in height and age at PHV over calendar time were observed; this was probably due to a selection bias since the oldest patients, who survived to be part of the present investigation, represented milder forms of the disease. The increase in BMI and change in magnitude of PHV over calendar time may reflect the improvement in treatment leading to a better survival and clinical status through puberty. The increase in BMI and change in magnitude of PHV were sufficient to overcome the selection bias from older patients with milder disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]