Mortality and Maldevelopment : Part II: The Saga of Neural Tube Defects

Congenital malformations are worldwide occurrences striking in every condition of society. These severe physical abnormalities which are present at birth and affecting every part of the body happen more often than usually realized, once in every 33 births. The most common, after heart defects, are those of the neural tube (the brain and spinal cord) which happen in as many as one in every 350 births. They have been noted as curiousities in man and beast throughout recorded history and received great attention in our time by various fields of study, for example, their faulty prenatal development by embryologists, familial patterns by geneticists, causation by environmentalists and variability by population scientists. Attention turned much in recent years to the relation of these malformations to deficiency of a particular dietary ingredient, folic acid, a subject this book analyzes in depth. The greatest conundrum of all, which this latest matter like so much else hinges on, is the amazing fact of the tremendous, almost universal decrease in the frequency of these anomalies since early in the 20th century. The puzzle is ‘What can this downward trend possibly mean?’ and at bottom ‘Whether it is part of a long-term cyclical pattern’. This fascinating biological phenomenon is explored in the book together with various other topics. Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction: Basic Stuff....Pages 1-3 Neural Tube Defects....Pages 5-15 Setting the Stage....Pages 17-18 Studies in the Old World....Pages 19-49 The Continent of Europe....Pages 51-77 The United States....Pages 79-117 Geography and Chronology....Pages 119-128 Canada....Pages 129-144 Australia and New Zealand....Pages 145-153 Blacks and Jews....Pages 155-165 The Mideast....Pages 167-169 Asia....Pages 171-172 The Sex Ratio Phenomenon....Pages 173-178 Abortion....Pages 179-183 Fetal Diagnosis of Neural Tube Defect....Pages 185-189 Etiology I: Early Questions....Pages 191-206 Etiology II....Pages 207-215 Neural Tube Defects in China....Pages 217-222 The Ultimate Question....Pages 223-224 The Future....Pages 225-225 Back Matter....Pages 227-265 Congenital malformations are worldwide occurrences striking in every condition of society. This work focuses on the relation of these malformations to deficiency of a particular dietary ingredient, folic acid Pt. 1. Congenital Cardiovascular Malformations -- Pt. 2. The Saga Of Neural Tube Defects. Harold Kalter. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.