Orofacial clefts are common birth defects of multifactorial etiology. Several novel approaches have recently been applied to investigate the causes of clefts. These include examining Mendelian forms of clefting to identify genes that might also be implicated in isolated clefting, analyzing chromosomal rearrangements in which clefting is part of the resultant phenotype, studying animal models in...

Dear Editor, Orofacial clefts are the most common congenital anomalies of the head and neck and its incidence ranges from 1/500 to 1/2000 live births, depending on populations. Etiology of these anomalies is multifactorial and includes both environmental and genetic factors. Many teratogenic agents and factors in pregnancy are claimed to cause clefting, such as maternal smoking and hypoxia and ...

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of orofacial clefts in live newborns from 1998 to 2002 in Brazilian state capitals and correlate their occurrence with a number of relevant socioeconomic factors collected in the 2000 census. Data was obtained from the Public Health Hospital Information System (SIH-SUS), Information System of Live Hospital Births (SINASC) and Atlases of Hu...

Folic acid and the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene have both been implicated in the etiology of orofacial clefts. The authors selected 261 case-parent triads (173 cases with cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL/P) and 88 cases with cleft palate only (CPO)) from a Norwegian population-based study of orofacial clefts (May 1996-1998). A case-parent triad design was used to e...

BACKGROUND In the last two decades, India has witnessed a substantial decrease in infant mortality attributed to infectious disease and malnutrition. However, the mortality attributed to birth defects remains constant. Studies on the prevalence of birth defects such as neural tube defects and orofacial clefts in India have reported inconsistent results. Therefore, we conducted a systematic revi...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is an association between enlarged nuchal translucency (NT) and orofacial clefts. METHODS The pregnancy outcome of women who underwent an NT measurement between January 2000 and November 2008 was reviewed. All orofacial clefts detected prenatally and postnatally in karyotypically normal fetuses/infants were reviewed and a disti...

Introduction: Orofacial clefts are among the most common congenital anomalies. Patients presenting with orofacial clefts often require surgery or other complex procedures. A cleft lip or palate can be a single anomaly or a part of multiple congenital anomalies. The reported prevalence of cleft disease and associated anomalies varies widely across the literature, and is dependent on the diagnost...