Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter to the Editor
  • Published:

Umbilical cord blood cotinine and smoking during pregnancy

Journal of Perinatology volume 32, page 156 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

We read with interest the paper by Wright TE et al.1 and we would like to add some conclusions reached by our group after a clinical research evaluating prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke by cotinine in cord blood.2

Prenatal tobacco exposure has been usually assessed using self-reported maternal questionnaire. Difficulties in differentiating passive tobacco exposure from active smoking (among there reluctant to admit active smoking or unconscious of passive exposure) have prompted the use of specific biomarkers to prevent bias in self-reported questionnaires.3, 4 Nicotine and its main metabolite (cotinine) have been used as biomarkers for second-hand smoke in conventional (blood and urine) and non-conventional matrices (saliva, meconium and hair).5 Cotinine presents a longer biological half-life than nicotine, and it is considered the best biochemical marker to differentiate between active and passive tobacco exposure. Moreover, the levels of cotinine have been found to be directly related with daily cigarette consumption.6

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Wright TE, Milam KA, Rougee L, Tanaka MD, Collier AC . Agreement of umbilical cord drug and cotinine levels with maternal self-report of drug use and smoking during pregnancy. J Perinatol 2011; 31: 324–329.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Pichini S, Basagana XB, Pacifici R, Garcia O, Puig C, Vall O et al. Cord serum cotinine as a biomarker of fetal exposure to cigarette smoke at the end of pregnancy. Environ Health Perspect 2000; 108: 1079–1083.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Puig C, Garcia-Algar O, Monleon T, Pacifici R, Zuccaro P, Sunyer J et al. A longitudinal study of environmental tobacco smoke exposure in children: parental self reports versus age dependent biomarkers. BMC Public Health 2008; 8: 47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Nafstad P, Kongerud J, Botten G, Urdal P, Silsand T, Pedersen BS et al. Fetal exposure to tobacco smoke products: a comparison between self-reported maternal smoking and concentrations of cotinine and thiocyanate in cord serum. Acta Obstet Gynecol.Scand 1996; 75: 902–907.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Llaquet H, Pichini S, Joya X, Papaseit E, Vall O, Klein J et al. Biological matrices for the evaluation of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke during prenatal life and childhood. Anal Bioanal Chem 2010; 396: 379–399.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Dhar P . Measuring tobacco smoke exposure: quantifying nicotine/cotinine concentration in biological samples by colorimetry, chromatography and immunoassay methods. J Pharm Biomed Anal 2004; 35: 155–168.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Chazeron I, Daval S, Ughetto S, Richard D, Nicolay A, Lemery D et al. GC-MS determined cotinine in an epidemiological study on smoking status at delivery. Pulm Pharmacol Ther 2008; 21: 485–488.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Perkins SL, Belcher JM, Livesey JF . A Canadian tertiary care centre study of maternal and umbilical cord cotinine levels as markers of smoking during pregnancy: relationship to neonatal effects. Can J Public Health 1997; 88: 232–237.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paediatrics Unit, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain

    O Garcia-Algar, C Puig, S Pichini, K Pallas & O Vall

Authors
  1. O Garcia-Algar
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. C Puig
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  3. S Pichini
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  4. K Pallas
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  5. O Vall
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to O Garcia-Algar.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Garcia-Algar, O., Puig, C., Pichini, S. et al. Umbilical cord blood cotinine and smoking during pregnancy. J Perinatol 32, 156 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2011.94

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2011.94

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links