THE INFLUENCE OF PRENATAL ULTRASOUND ON THE PREVALENCE OF CONGENITAL-ANOMALIES AT BIRTH

The objectives of the study were (1) to assess whether prenatal ultras ound examinations affected the prevalence of congenital anomalies at b irth and the incidence of terminations of pregnancy for fetal anomalie s and (2) to examine the detection rate of the main fetal anomalies. W e studied all births and stillbirths with congenital defects, and all terminations of pregnancy for fetal anomalies in the Rambam Medical Ce nter during a 5-year period (1989-1993) and correlated them to ultraso und findings. There were 23 439 births during the study period. The in cidence of newborns with anomalies decreased from 1.95 to 1.34 per cen t (P<0.01). The incidence of termination of pregnancy because of fetal anomalies increased from 0.35 to 0.83 per cent (P<0.003) and the dete ction rate of malformations increased from 53.94 to 79.60 per cent (P< 0.001). It is concluded that terminations of pregnancy after ultrasoun d detection of fetal anomalies had an impact on the prevalence of anom alies in newborns. There was also continuing significant improvement i n the detection rate of ultrasound examinations. (C) 1997 by John Wile y & Sons, Ltd.