[Births prevalence of 27 selected congenital anomalies in 7 geographic regions of Argentina].
OBJECTIVE
The aim of the present work was to estimate the frequency of 27 birth defects in 7 geographical regions of Argentina.


METHODS
Observational, cross-sectional, descriptive design. A sample of 21,844 new born with birth defects was selected, ascertained from 855,220 births, between 1994 and 2007, in 59 hospitals belonging to the ECLAMC network. In order to identify regions of high frequency a Poisson regression was used, adjusted by different hospitals from the same region. The model included a time variable to detect secular trends and 6 dummy variables for 7 predefined geographical regions: Metropolitana (MET); Pampa (PAM); Centro (CEN); Cuyo (CUY); Noroeste (NOA); Nordeste (NEA) and Patagonia (PAT).


RESULTS
High frequencies regional analysis showed the following significant results: PAM: severe hypospadias; CEN: spina bifida, microtia, cleft lip with cleft palate, polycystic kidney, postaxial polydactyly and Down syndrome; CUY: postaxial polydactyly; NOA: omphalocele, gastroschisis, cleft lip without cleft palate, cleft lip with cleft palate, anorectal atresia/stenosis, indeterminate sex, preaxial polydactyly and pectoral agenesis; PAT: cleft lip without cleft palate.


CONCLUSIONS
Out of the 27 congenital anomalies analyzed, fourteen showed a frequency significatively higher in one or more regions.
Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Celular, CONICET, La Plata, Argentina.
Hebe
H
Campaña
Mariela S
MS
Pawluk
Jorge S
JS
López Camelo
D001118:Argentina / Q000453:epidemiology; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015995:Prevalence