Congenital abnormalities

Preceding Pregnancy Loss as an Index of Risk of Stillbirth or Neonatal Death in the Present Pregnancy

“…The increase in deaths with congenital defect with a history of previous pregnancy loss has been reported before for all malformations {Landtmann, 1948,Book, 1951Coffey and Jessop, 1955;McDonald, 1958) and for defects o f the central nervous system (Malpas, 1937); Record and McKeown, 1950;Labrum and Wood, 1961). Smithells and Chinn (1965) reported an excess of pregnancies end ing in abortion immediately preceding the birth of an infant with spina bifida and many studies on the epidemiology of anencephalus have indi cated an excess of previous stillbirths and abor tions (Book and Raynor, 1950;Coffey and Jessop, 1957) ;Smilkstein, 1962;Mufarrif and Kilejian, 1963;Frezal et al, 1964;Smithells et al, 1964;Warburton and Clarke Fraser, 1964).…”

Major central nervous system malformations in South Wales. I. Incidence, local variations and geographical factors.

“…Purely local and hospital surveys, of which that from Dublin by Coffey and Jessop (1955) is an example, generally concern a selected group, tend to be small and retrospective, and to involve the cases from many years before sufficient numbers are available. They have the advantage of being able to be carried out easily by one investigator trying to find a specific but limited answer to his problem.…”

“…It is interesting to note that the investigations relying upon records only report a particularly high incidence of hydrocephalus, possibly because of misreporting and the inclusion of "acquired cases" This latter is almost certainly the reason why the "revised" rate at 5 years for Birmingham (McKeown and Record, 1960) is so much higher than the rate computed from birth and neonatal records. In fact, congenital hydrocephalus without associated spina bifida is a rare malformation, and it could be argued al., 1966et al, 1953Stotter, 1962Jessop, 1955McKeown, McKeown, 19491949 157 W-White N=Non-white (a) = Birth (b) = years that the number of hydrocephalics included in an epidemiological study can be taken as an index as to how carefully the information has been recorded and collected. The South Wales incidence of central nervous system malformations is one of the highest so far reported, exceeded only by that from Belfast (Stevenson and Warnock, 1959) of the population surveys.…”

Congenital Abnormalities in the African Newborn

“…Other incidences which exclude many minor abnormalities are 1 -47% (Carter, 1950; England, booked cases only), 1-63% (Coffey and Jessop, 1955; Ireland, hospital cases), 0-67% (Hegnauer, 1951; Germany, hospital cases), 1-11% (Nowak, 1950; Germany, hospital cases), and 1 02% (Neel, 1958; Japan, general population). It is better to compare the incidence of particular abnormalities, but in a small series such as this comparison with other large series is not possible.…”