Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26847388›Full record

Trial reportThe British journal of nutrition2016

Inositol for the prevention of neural tube defects: a pilot randomised controlled trial.

Nicholas D E Greene, Kit-Yi Leung, Victoria Gay, Katie Burren, Kevin Mills, Lyn S Chitty, Andrew J Copp

Erratum issuedOpen access · hybridAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in The British journal of nutrition, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 35 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
35citing papers in PubMed
6.0field-weighted citation impact, top 4% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

35 citing papers in PubMed, 65 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
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  3. Review
  4. Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025
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  7. Review
  8. Review
  9. Article
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  14. The Alberta Congenital Anomalies Surveillance System: a 40-year review with prevalence and trends for selected congenital anomalies, 1997-2019.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2023
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Review
  18. Inositols: From Established Knowledge to Novel Approaches.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021
    Review
  19. Review
  20. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Nicholas D E Greene1Newlife Birth Defects Research Centre,Institute of Child Health,University College London,London WC1N 1EH,UK.
Kit-Yi Leung1Newlife Birth Defects Research Centre,Institute of Child Health,University College London,London WC1N 1EH,UK.
Victoria Gay1Newlife Birth Defects Research Centre,Institute of Child Health,University College London,London WC1N 1EH,UK.
Katie Burren1Newlife Birth Defects Research Centre,Institute of Child Health,University College London,London WC1N 1EH,UK.
Kevin Mills2Genetics, Genomics and Metabolism Programme,Institute of Child Health,University College London,London WC1N 1EH,UK.
Lyn S Chitty2Genetics, Genomics and Metabolism Programme,Institute of Child Health,University College London,London WC1N 1EH,UK.
Andrew J Copp1Newlife Birth Defects Research Centre,Institute of Child Health,University College London,London WC1N 1EH,UK.
University College London · GBGenomics (United Kingdom) · GB

Funding

Medical Research Council G0401315Medical Research Council G0601546
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Although peri-conceptional folic acid (FA) supplementation can prevent a proportion of neural tube defects (NTD), there is increasing evidence that many NTD are FA non-responsive. The vitamin-like molecule inositol may offer a novel approach to preventing FA-non-responsive NTD. Inositol prevented NTD in a genetic mouse model, and was well tolerated by women in a small study of NTD recurrence. In the present study, we report the Prevention of Neural Tube Defects by Inositol (PONTI) pilot study designed to gain further experience of inositol usage in human pregnancy as a preliminary trial to a future large-scale controlled trial to evaluate efficacy of inositol in NTD prevention. Study subjects were UK women with a previous NTD pregnancy who planned to become pregnant again. Of 117 women who made contact, ninety-nine proved eligible and forty-seven agreed to be randomised (double-blind) to peri-conceptional supplementation with inositol plus FA or placebo plus FA. In total, thirty-three randomised pregnancies produced one NTD recurrence in the placebo plus FA group (n 19) and no recurrences in the inositol plus FA group (n 14). Of fifty-two women who declined randomisation, the peri-conceptional supplementation regimen and outcomes of twenty-two further pregnancies were documented. Two NTD recurred, both in women who took only FA in their next pregnancy. No adverse pregnancy events were associated with inositol supplementation. The findings of the PONTI pilot study encourage a large-scale controlled trial of inositol for NTD prevention, but indicate the need for a careful study design in view of the unwillingness of many high-risk women to be randomised.

Indexed as

Dietary SupplementsMaternal Nutritional Physiological PhenomenaPreconception CareAdultCohort StudiesDouble-Blind MethodFeasibility StudiesFemaleFolic AcidFollow-Up StudiesHumansInositolNeural Tube DefectsPatient CompliancePilot ProjectsPregnancyFolic AcidInositolFA folic acidFolic acid supplementationInositolMRC Medical Research CouncilNeural tube defectsNTD neural tube defectsPONTI Prevention of Neural Tube Defects by InositolPregnancy supplements

Identifiers

PMID26847388
PMCPMC4825100
OpenAlexW2284702704

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.