Frequency of foetal anomalies in a tertiary care centre.

OBJECTIVE The present study was undertaken to explore the incidence of congenital foetal anomalies and the advantages of ultrasonography in detecting the foetal anomalies during the antenatal period. METHOD We focused our study on 1000 consecutive pregnancies that came for check up in the second and third trimesters, with major or minor clinically relevant malformations which were detectable by ultrasonography. RESULTS The analysis revealed that they were 38 foetal anomalies in 37 foetuses. One had multiple anomalies, with the highest incidence of neural tube defects. There was also significant correlation with consanguinity. CONCLUSION The overall incidence of congenital foetal anomalies in the present study was 3.8%.This might be probably due to environmental pollution, radiation, exposure to different chemicals and teratogenic drugs.