title: The influence of prenatal ultrasound on the prevalence of congenital anomalies at birth.
abstract: The objectives of the study were (1) to assess whether prenatal ultrasound examinations affected the prevalence of congenital anomalies at birth and the incidence of terminations of pregnancy for fetal anomalies and (2) to examine the detection rate of the main fetal anomalies. We studied all births and stillbirths with congenital defects, and all terminations of pregnancy for fetal anomalies in the Rambam Medical Center during a 5-year period (1989-1993) and correlated them to ultrasound findings. There were 23439 births during the study period. The incidence of newborns with anomalies decreased from 1.95 to 1.34 per cent (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 detection rate of malformations increased from 53.94 to 79.60 per cent (P < 0.001). It is concluded that terminations of pregnancy after ultrasound detection of fetal anomalies had an impact on the prevalence of anomalies in newborns. There was also continuing significant improvement in the detection rate of ultrasound examinations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rambam Medical Center, Technion Faculty of Medicine, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: E Z
authors.initials: EZ
authors.lastname: Zimmer
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Avraham
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sujoy
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Goldstein
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bronshtein
mesh_terms: D000032:Abortion, Therapeutic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006773:Hospitals, Municipal; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal