The Medical Journal of Australia ISSN: 0025729X 15 March 2010 192 6 300-301 ©The Medical Journal of Australia 2010 www.mja.com.au Editorials system, including the considerable expense of provid to screen for, diagnose and terminate pregnancie major congenital anomalies (Down syndrome and defects in particul r). Importantly, some anomalies able, including neural tube defects (70% preventa quate ...

James Graves Wilson's six principles of teratology [4], published in 1959, guide research on teratogenic agents and their effects on developing organisms. Wilson's six principles were inspired by Gabriel Madeleine Camille Dareste's five principles of experimental teratology [4] published in 1877. Teratology is the study of birth defects [5], and a teratogen is something that either induces or a...

Amelia affects approximately 0.05 to 0.09 out of every 10,000 newborn babies. The complete absence a limb may occur in isolation or as part multiple congenital malformations. condition is uncommon and very little known with certainty about the etiology, It could also be sporadic can caused by teratogens such thalidomide, alcohol, vascular compromise amniotic bands maternal diabetes mellitus. Am...

Embryogenesis is an intricate process that can easily be disrupted by means of teratogenic agents. Some of these agents target the embryonic period?s ?window of susceptibility,? three to eight weeks after a pregnant woman?s last menstruation [5], when the highest degree of sensitivity to embryonic cell differentiation [6] and organ formation occurs. The embryonic period or critical period is wh...

Congenital cardiovascular malformations occur in about 5 to 8 of every 1,000 live births, and the percentage in stillborn infants is probably even higher. Between the 5 and 8 weeks of embryonic life, the primitive heart tube undergoes a process of folding, remodeling with the formation of valves, and septation that transforms its single lumen into the four chambers of the definitive heart. Alth...

Caudal regression syndrome (CRS) is a rare neural tube defect affecting terminal spinal segments and cord manifesting as neurological deficit ranging from bladder and bowel involvement to severe sensory motor deficits in lower limbs. It has sporadic appearance and maternal diabetes, genetic factors, teratogens and hypoperfusion are considered as possible etiologic factors and it can be associat...