[Clinico-epidemiological studies of anomalies of the central nervous system in children in evaluation of the effectiveness of their prevention by fetal ultrasonography and genetic monitoring].

A study was made of the prevalence, structure and risk factors of congenital developmental abnormalities (CDAs) of the CNS seen over the recent 17 years in the newborn (217,000 births) and 7845 children of different age, who died during the same period. The stage I work involved a retrospective analysis of the medical documentation up to a broad-scale introduction of ultrasonography of CDAs in the fetus; stage II was concerned, with an analysis of the genetic monitoring after this method was introduced into public health practice, with the coverage of the pregnant amounting to 98%. The recent years have witnessed a stable tendency toward a decrease of both the total incidence of CDAs of the CNS in the newborn and dead children and of the incidence of certain CDAs, namely anencephaly + and hydrocephalus, most accurately diagnosed on ultrasonography. The ratio of pregnancy (the 4th and subsequent ones), pregnancy pathologies (gestosis, infectious diseases), prematurity, intrauterine hypotrophy, previous exposure to ionizing radiation of the future child's mother and father (radiotherapy, industrial hazards, and so forth) are significant risk factors of CDAs of the CNS in the fetus.