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. 1986 Dec 1;135(11):1269–1273.

Prevalence and prenatal diagnosis of neural tube defects in Nova Scotia in 1980-84.

E J Winsor, B S Brown
PMCID: PMC1491393  PMID: 3536051

Abstract

A survey of the records of all hospitals with obstetric services in Nova Scotia revealed that during 1980-84 there were 122 pregnancies involving a neural tube defect. The mean rate was 2/1000 births. Of the affected fetuses or infants 54% had spina bifida, 35% had anencephaly and 11% had encephalocele. The records showed that in the early part of the period studied at least one prenatal ultrasonographic examination had been performed in 60% of the pregnancies; in 1984 the rate was 74%. When examinations done before 16 weeks' gestation were excluded, the overall detection rates at the first ultrasonographic examination were 100% for anencephaly and 73% for spina bifida and encephalocele; the rates improved toward the end of the study period.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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