title: Association between alcohol consumption during pregnancy and risks of congenital heart defects in offspring: meta-analysis of epidemiological observational studies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To explore the association between maternal alcohol consumption and/or binge drinking and congenital heart defects (CHDs), we conducted a meta-analysis for more sufficient evidence on this issue.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched Medline, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library from their inceptions to December 2014 for case-control and cohort studies that assessed the association between maternal alcohol consumption and CHD risk. Study-specific relative risk estimates were calculated using random-effect or fixed-effect models.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 19 case-control studies and 4 cohort studies were included in the meta-analysis. We observed a null association between maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy and the risk of CHDs. Even in the analysis of different trimesters of pregnancy, we found little association between the two.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This meta-analysis suggests that maternal alcohol consumption is modestly not associated with the risk of CHDs. However, further investigation is needed to confirm this conclusion.
authors: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Nanjing Children's Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210008, China. 353228540@qq.com.
authors: Zhongyuan
authors: Z
authors: Wen
authors: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Nanjing Children's Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210008, China. 391122912@qq.com.
authors: Di
authors: D
authors: Yu
authors: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Nanjing Children's Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210008, China. 1015853308@qq.com.
authors: Weiyan
authors: W
authors: Zhang
authors: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Nanjing Children's Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210008, China. 44351569@qq.com.
authors: Changfeng
authors: C
authors: Fan
authors: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Nanjing Children's Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210008, China. yanchenghuliang@163.com.
authors: Liang
authors: L
authors: Hu
authors: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Nanjing Children's Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210008, China. 592217666@qq.com.
authors: Yu
authors: Y
authors: Feng
authors: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Nanjing Children's Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210008, China. yangleidr@163.com.
authors: Lei
authors: L
authors: Yang
authors: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Nanjing Children's Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210008, China. 775421346@qq.com.
authors: Zeyu
authors: Z
authors: Wu
authors: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Nanjing Children's Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210008, China. 852776404@qq.com.
authors: Runsen
authors: R
authors: Chen
authors: Department of Neurology, Center for the Study of Nervous System Injury, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA. kjieyin@hotmail.com.
authors: Ke-Jie
authors: KJ
authors: Yin
authors: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Nanjing Children's Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210008, China. mohsuming15@sina.com.
authors: Xuming
authors: X
authors: Mo
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D018811:Maternal Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D064887:Observational Studies as Topic; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D012307:Risk Factors