PEDIATRICS Vol. 1 No. 3 March 1948, pp. 315-326
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CONGENITAL ENCEPHALO-OPHTHALMIC DYSPLASIA

Epidemiologic Implications

THEODORE H. INGALLS M.D.1

1 The Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health; the Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School; and the Children's Hospital of the Children's Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts.

While the causative agents of encephalo-ophthalmic dysplasia are relatively numerous, the causative mechanisms are fewer in number and operate during or shortly after the second trimester of pregnancy. Causative agents include placental abnormalities and hemorrhages; conditions leading to or associated with premature and multiple births; and possibly certain intercurrent infections of the mother. There is no evidence of a genetic factor. Clinical, pathologic and epidemiologic evidence suggests that lack of oxygen to the fetus may be the most important causative mechanism leading to permanent damage of vascular tissues. Special features of the clinical syndrome are due to the stage of development of the host at the time the injurious agent acted. They are also dependent upon the site and extent of injury, and are modified greatly by secondary changes.

Submitted on December 8, 1947