title: Time-space distribution of extrahepatic biliary atresia in The Netherlands and West Germany.
abstract: Extrahepatic biliary atresia (EHBA) is an infrequent disease confined to early infancy. Its aetiology is not clear, but an infectious agent has been implicated. Demonstration of a time-space clustering would support this hypothesis. Therefore, we investigated the time-space distribution of all 89 cases of EHBA born in a 10-year period in the Netherlands. We carried out a similar study in West Germany and analysed 130 cases of EHBA, born between 1969 and 1986, from 4 paediatric surgical centres. Analysis of these cases did not reveal any evidence for clustering in specific years or in a specific period of the year. The places of birth of the patients also were randomly distributed over rural areas, villages and towns. Neither did a method to reveal time-space interaction give any support for clustering. This random distribution of patients with EHBA suggests that EHBA could be pathogenetically a heterogeneous disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, University Hospital Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Houwen
authors.forename: I I
authors.initials: II
authors.lastname: Kerremans
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: van Steensel-Moll
authors.forename: L K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: van Romunde
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Bijleveld
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schweizer
mesh_terms: D001656:Biliary Atresia / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005860:Germany, West; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009426:Netherlands; D013029:Space-Time Clustering