are glad to have a full and authoritative account of it provided by the originator. The work is enriched by the addition of Professor Humphry's drawings, and by a special account of the pathology of spina bifida from the pen of Professor Cleland. The author modestly refers to the report of the Clinical Society on his mode of treatment with some gratitude, and at the same time with a certain amo...

Neural tube defects (NTDs), such as spina bifida, are common and severe birth defects in humans but the underlying causes are poorly understood. The pathogenesis and etiology of spina bifida in the curly tail mouse closely resemble defects in humans, providing a well-characterized model of NTDs. Grainyhead-like-3 (Grhl3), which encodes a transcription factor, was recently identified as a candid...

BACKGROUND Patients with spina bifida frequently sustain lower extremity fractures which may be difficult to diagnose because they feel little or no pain, although the relative contributions of low bone density to pain insensitivity are unclear. Routine dual-energy xray absorptiometry (DXA) scanning is unreliable because these patients lack bony elements in the spine, and many have joint contra...

OBJECTIVES We evaluated whether the phenotypic pattern of higher verbal than nonverbal IQ in children with spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) is consistent across subgroups differing in ethnicity and SES. We also explored the relation of cognitive and academic performance. METHODS Non-Hispanic White (n = 153) and Hispanic (n = 80) children with SBM received the Stanford Binet Test of Intelli...

OBJECTIVE To examine differences between families of youth with spina bifida (SB) and families of typically developing (TD) youth on family-, parent-, and youth-level variables across preadolescence and adolescence. METHODS Participants were 68 families of youth with SB and 68 families of TD youth. Ratings of observed family interactions were collected every 2 years at 5 time points (Time 1: ...

there are many reports that show the teratogenic effects of phenobarbital can be decreased by stimulation of maternal immune system. therefore, in this study, the prophylactic effects of levamisole and vitamin e on teratogenic effects of phenobarbital were compared. this study was performed on 20 pregnant rats that were divided into four groups. control group received normal saline and test gro...

Cebocephaly and sirenomelia are uncommon birth defects. Their association is extremely rare; however, the presence of spina bifida with both conditions is not unexpected. We report on a female still-birth with cebocephaly, alobar holoprosencephaly, cleft palate, lumbar spina bifida, sirenomelia, a single umbilical artery, and a 46,XX karyotype, but without maternal diabetes mellitus. Our case a...

Urological problems are common in spina bifida and are often treated with urinary diversions. Spina bifida and ileal conduits put patients at increased risk for ascending urinary tract infections. Here we present a novel case of a Citrobacter koseri urinary tract infection complicated by a perinephric abscess with pleural extension. To our knowledge, no case of an ascending C. koseri UTI progre...

Data from the Glasgow Register of Congenital Malformations were used to investigate the extent of the recent decline in the prevalence of anencephaly and spina bifida, and the contribution of antenatal screening to it. Over the period 1974-85 inclusive, 303 pregnancies with an anencephalic foetus were diagnosed, representing an "adjusted" prevalence of 1.9 per 1000 total births, of which 179 (5...

It is usually held that there is a time continuum in the formation of monoxygotic (MZ) twins which is indexed by their placentation, running from dichorionic to monochorionic diamniotic to monochorionic monoamniotic and conjoined pairs. There is good evidence that this continuum is characterised by a continuum of predisposition to anencephaly, slightly raised in dichorionic pairs but very high ...