Resumen de Frecuencia de los defectos de cierre del tubo neural en las maternidades públicas de Santiago durante el año 1999
Fanny Cortés M, Cecilia Mellado S, Eva Hertrampf Diaz, Angélica Alliende R, Silvia Castillo T
Background: Fortification of wheat flour with folic acid in Chile, started in January 2000. This fortification should decrease the incidence of neural tube defects. Aim: To study the incidence of neural tube defects among Chilean newborns, during 1999. Material and methods: The records of all newborns and stillbirths with a birth weight over 500 g from 9 public maternity hospitals in Santiago in 1999, were reviewed. All neural tube defects, associated or not to other malformations were taken into account. Results: During the study period, 59.627 newborns and 455 stillbirths were analyzed. The global incidence of neural tube defects was 1.56 per 1.000 born (57% women, 42% men and 1% ambiguous sex). Spina bifida was the most frequent neural tube defect found. Conclusion: These baseline data will be useful to assess the impact of folic acid fortification of wheat flour. (Rev Méd Chile 2001; 129: 277-84).
