The present study involved a questionnaire survey of 156 mothers that gave birth to children with neural tube defects or had a history of pregnancy resulting in children with neural tube defects (case group) and 156 control mothers with concurrent healthy children (control group) as well as detection of mitochondrial membrane transporter protein gene [uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2)] polymorphism. ...

I read with interest the study by Seidahmed et al 1 on the epidemiology of neural tube defects (NTDs). It has inspired me to throw light on the continuously growing health problem of NTDs in Iraq, and compare it with the data from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). I would like to address the following 3 points. First, Seidahmed et al 1 mentioned that the prevalence of NTDs was 1.2/1000 live bi...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to review cases of neural tube defect with special focus on presentation, epidemiology and clinical presentation. Management with complications and results of surgery were discussed. METHODS Ninety-three cases, born with neural tube defect (spina bifida aperta) were operated upon in our unit at King Hussein Medical Centre, Amman, Jordan, from June 1997 to O...

The hypothesis that anencephalus stems from fetus-fetus interactions in dizygotic twin pairs is examined by comparing the epidemiological predictions of the hypothesis with available observations. The hypothesis itself was based upon the disease-discordance and sex-concordance characteristics of twin pairs affected with anencephalus, and upon the sex ratio of the disease itself. The testable pr...

In a few countries enriched cereal grains have been fortified with folic acid to reduce the incidence of neural tube defects. The objective of this study was to analyse the effect of folic acid fortified foods on the incidence of neural tube defects in live newborns at Princess Badea Teaching Hospital, in the north of Jordan, before and after the national food fortification with folic acid was ...

Over a two-year period, 3479 pregnant women in the Kings' Lynn Health District were screened for neural tube defects by estimation of maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein. Most pregnancies were scanned by sonar for fetal maturity. Eight women had fetuses with open neural tube defects; four with anencephaly were associated with very high alpha-fetoprotein values. Of the four with open neural tube de...