According to Yale Researchers, doctors may be able to tell if a newborn is at high risk for autism just by looking at the placenta, according to USA Today.
If the procedure is successful, then treatment for the growing disease could start at an earlier age.
Researchers examined the abnormal folds in the placentas and were able to tell if a newborn had an older brother or sister with autism. This makes it nine more times as likely for a child to develop autism themselves.
Harvey Kliman, a Yale researcher and lead author of the study, believes this new method of detection allows treatment to occur at one of the best possible times.
"At birth we have a tool now that can tell us who's at risk and who isn't at risk for autism," Kilman said. "This gives us the opportunity to intervene at a time when the brain is most plastic and able to transform."
Currently there is no way to tell whether the infant will actually suffer from the disorder. There won’t be a way to tell until the child is at least a year old. Doctors can detect autism in a child by examining its repetative behavior and social and communication challenges; nearly impossible to do at a newborns age.
According to Cheryl Walker, a co-author for the study, examining the likelihood for autism in the placenta may also aid analysts to find the genetics that create the risk for autism and the environmental factors that cause it.
Walker, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, Davis, said candidates for the disease have problems with obesity, nutrition, and weight gain or diabetes in the mother and exposure to chemicals that disrupt hormones.
Walkers said these factors “may influence growth in fetal tissues like the placenta and brain.”
Researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute have been conducting a study called Markers of Autism Risk In Babies—Learning Early Signs. They gave Kilman 217 placentas. He was able, with 90 percent accuracy, to tell which newborns had a sibling with autism.
The strange folding of the placentas indicates the autism has a possible effect on tissue in the body, Kilman said.
Researchers are hopeful since it has never been possible to detect the possibility of autism in the first couple months of life. However, they unsure if current treatment will work on newborns, the way it works on older children.
Currently approximately one in 50 children suffers from autism.
The study was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
