Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu khoa học ngành y học tạp chí Medical Sciences dành cho các bạn sinh viên ngành y tham khảo đề tài: Foundation for the Community Control of Hereditary Diseases, Budapest, Hungary . | Int. J. Med. Sci. 2005 2 91 International Journal of Medical Sciences ISSN 1449-1907 2005 2 3 91-92 2005 Ivyspring International Publisher. All rights reserved Editorial Birth Defects Are Preventable Andrew E. Czeizel Foundation for the Community Control of Hereditary Diseases Budapest Hungary Corresponding address Andrew E. Czeizel Foundation for the Community Control of Hereditary Diseases 1148 Budapest Bolgárkerék utca 3. Hungary Received Accepted Published Editorial Birth defects - or by according to the World Health Organization s WHO term congenital anomalies - are structural functional and or biochemical-molecular defects present at birth whether detected at that time or not Figure 1 . Among different categories of birth defects congenital abnormalities . structural-morphological defects represent the largest one. Congenital abnormalities can be divided into three groups 1. Lethal if the defects such as anencephaly or hypoplastic left heart syndrome cause stillbirth late fetal death or infant death or pregnancies are terminated after the prenatal diagnosis of fetal defects in more than 50 of cases. 2. Severe if the defects such as cleft lip or congenital pyloric stenosis without medical intervention cause handicap or death. 3. Mild if defects such as congenital dislocation of the hip or undescended testis require medical intervention but life expectancy is good. Lethal and severe defects together constitute major congenital abnormalities. Minor anomalies or morphological variants such as epicanthal folds ocular hypotelorism preauricular tags and pits low-set ears simian crease clino- and camptodactyly partial syndactyly between toes 2 and 3 hydrocele umbilical hernia sacral dimple etc without serious medical or cosmetic consequences are excluded from the category of congenital abnormalities. In general we cannot measure the incidence of congenital abnormalities due to the prenatal loss of fetuses such as .
