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Biomarkers for prenatal alcohol exposure are crucial for investigating nonvisible effects of ethanol on childhood development. They are also important because mothers may underreport their prenatal alcohol use.
To determine whether the presence of meconium ethyl glucuronide (EtG) — an alcohol metabolite that accumulates in the fetal gut between gestational week 20 and delivery — is a potential marker for prenatal alcohol exposure and its cognitive and behavioral effects on offspring, German investigators collected meconium samples at 2 to 24 hours after birth from mothers with single pregnancies who were at least 18 years old and at 30 weeks' gestation at study enrollment. Alcohol use was determined from interviews during the third trimester…