MULTIPLE MALFORMATIONS STUDIED WITH A NATIONAL REGISTER OF MALFORMATIONS
An analysis was performed of 120 children, born with multiple malformations and reported to the Swedish national register of congenital malformations. The simultaneous occurrence of two or more specific malformations may be random or due to the presence of a specific syndrome. A statistical analysis demonstrates that specific associations do occur between certain malformations, and one "new" syndrome was found, consisting of closure defects of the central nervous system, an- or microphthalmia, cleft lip and/or cleft palate, and reduction malformations of the limbs, not related to the amelia-phocomelia group. Children with this constellation of malformations were especially common during the first half of 1965. Its cause is unknown. The method of analysis presented may be useful for an early detection of a new, drug-induced malformation syndrome.