Brain malformations significantly associated with preterm birth, Wake Forest rese...(been evidence suggesting brain malformat...)

Date:7/2/2009

been evidence suggesting brain malformations are also associated with preterm birth, it has been difficult to document such an association because brain defects can be hidden within the cranium and may remain undetected until autopsy, whereas malformations of other parts of the body can be determined through birth registries.

For his study, Brown looked at 1,168 autopsy files that contained congenital brain defects as well as information on the gestational age at birth of the subject. For comparison, Brown also looked at published files of over 7,000 infants with "significant birth defects of any kind" and more than 260,000 infants without brain defects. The control cases came from a large registry published by the Metropolitan Atlanta Congenital Defects Program.

In his review, Brown found that, in the autopsy cases with brain defects, the mean gestational age was 36.6 weeks, whereas the data showed a mean gestational age of 39.9 weeks for infants with no defects and a gestation of 38.1 weeks for infants with defects of any kind. "Preterm" birth is defined as 20 to 36 weeks gestation, while "term" birth is defined as 37 to 41 weeks. Only 9.3 percent of babies born without defects were preterm, compared to 21.5 percent of those with defects. In the autopsy cases with brain defects, the rate of preterm birth was even greater at 33.1 percent, showing the strongest association between the two.

Some types of brain defects have a stronger association with preterm birth than others, the study showed. The list itself could possibly offer some clue to the association. Among the malformations studied with the highest rates of preterm birth were hydrocephaly, an abnormal buildup of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the ventricles of the brain (65.2 percent); anencephaly, a defect in the closure of the neural tube during fetal development resulting in the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp (57.7 percent); multicystic encephalomalaci
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Contact: Jessica Guenzel jguenzel@wfubmc.edu 336-716-3487 Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center Source:Eurekalert

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