Introduction : Birth defect and preterm birth are major causes of perinatal mortality and require prolonged medical care after birth and are serious public health problems affecting the quality of life and survival. Because in the era of low fertili...
Introduction : Birth defect and preterm birth are major causes of perinatal mortality and require prolonged medical care after birth and are serious public health problems affecting the quality of life and survival. Because in the era of low fertility population, most women strongly want to give birth to a healthy baby, there are increasing needs for the analysis of etiology and prevention for birth defect. Therefore we performed a survey for risk factors of birth defect and collected biological resources to evaluate the genetic and public health characteristics of birth defect using the active surveillance model.
Method : We performed a survey based on the registry protocol of major birth defects in Korea which had been developed by our group, from May 2010 to December 2012. To acquire biological resources, we collected blood and urine samples of enrolled pregnants and their husbands and cord blood and placenta tissue during delivery. Collected blood samples were separated into DNA and plasma for further genetic research and stored.
Results : Total 1,667 cases were collected. Among 1,667 enrolled cases, 633 cases were in the birth defect group and 1,034 were in the normal control group. In the birth defect group, lateral ventriculomegaly was most common anomaly (273 cases). There were 105 cases of congenital cystic adenomatoid malformatioin of lung, 102 cases of pulmonary sequestration, 88 cases of ventricular septal defect and 85cases of cleft lip. Among delivered birth defect cases, all sample collection was completed in 562 cases (94.1%) and in other 35 cases (5.9%), sample collection was not completed. Among enrolled normal cases, all sample collection was completed in 925 cases (89.7%) and in other 106cases (10.3%) sample collection was completed.
Conclusion : In this study we collect biological resources to evaluate the genetic and public health characteristics of birth defect and we make enroll system using questionnaire. We can use them not only evaluating the unkown causes of birth defect, but also preventing and management of congenital anomalies