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Brian Vastag

JAMA. 2002;288:2959.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

For the first time, researchers think that infants born via in vitro fertilization (IVF) may be at risk for a birth defect, specifically Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS), characterized by, among other features, an enlarged tongue and a predisposition for rare cancers.

According to a spokesperson for the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technologies, IVF does not result in a higher-than-normal rate of birth defects. However, a study funded by the National Institutes of Health presents epidemiological and biological evidence of just such a link.

In a registry of 65 children with BWS, three (5%) of the children had been conceived via IVF. Overall, only 0.8% of births in the United States occur after IVF. "You'd expect maybe half a case [of BWS in the registry]. Even one would be kind of alarming," said Andrew Feinberg, MD, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and an author of a . . . [Full Text of this Article]