Background: NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS (NTDs) including spina bifida and anencephaly are the second most common birth DEFECTS with 2.8 per 1000 births in northern Iran.Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the risk factors of NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS in Gorgan, north of Iran.Patients and Methods: This hospital-based, case-control study was carried out on all NTD-affected pregnancies (n=59) during February 2007 - August 2010, and 160 healthy pregnancies were selected via convenient sampling method in three hospitals in Gorgan, north of Iran. Risk factors including maternal body mass index (BMI), season of birth, gender of the newborn, mother’s age, ethnicity, consanguineous marriage, folic acid consumption, nutrition, habitat, and education, were assessed through interviews with mothers. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the risks by odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals.Results: The multivariate analysis showed that maternal BMI (normal/underweight OR: 0.23, overweight/underweight OR: 0.15, obese/underweight OR: 0.13) and maternal ethnicity (Fars/Sistani OR: 3.49) and maternal nutrition (good/poor OR: 0.46) were significantly correlated with NTDs in the newborns.Conclusions: This study showed that maternal ethnicity, insufficient nutrition, and BMI, were the main risk factors of NTDs in northern Iran.

Objective: NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS including anencephaly, encephalocele, and spina bifida are major congenital malformations with multifactorial etiology, and with a great variation in their prevalence in different populations. The study on the Prevalence of the malformations may be helpful in planning strategies for their prevention. The aim of this epidemiologic descriptive study was to determine the prevalence of NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS and to describe their birth characteristics in Motahhari hospital, Urmia, West Azerbaijan.Materials and Methods: A cross-section observational study was carried on the hospital-based charts of consecutive 13997 live-births and 124 stillbirths during the period January 2001 through June 2005. The DEFECTS categorized based on the domains of anencephaly, spina bifida, and encephalocele according to standard definitions.Results: During this period, 117 cases were detected with NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS, giving an overall prevalence of 8.29/1000. Of 117 cases, 81 (69.23%) cases were seen among stillbirths and 36 (30.77%) cases among live-births, that is, the prevalence of NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS for stillbirths and live-births were 653.2/1000 and 2.57/1000 respectively. The yearly prevalence varies between 6.99/1000 and 9.82/1000 over the 4.5-year period. The major lesion was anencephaly with prevalence of 5.52/1000 (66.67% of all NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS). Approximately, two-thirds (66.09%) of cases were found in females. Weights of 73.36% of anencephalic cases were less than 1000 grams.Conclusion: In this study, the prevalence of NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS is among the highest reported rates. There was a significance difference in the prevalence of anencephaly, as the most prevalent NTD, between live-births and stillbirths. These findings may necessitate an intensive approach to periconceptional folic acid supplementation as a possible strategy to reduce the prevalence of these DEFECTS.

Statistical data from 1966 till 1995 showed that NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS, in the American continent, Venezuela had the highest prevalence of 38.9 and some Latin American countries showed the low of 7.7. In Europe, Norway had the highest prevalence of 68, and Denmark the lowest, 5.8. In Asia, India had the highest of 181.8 and Japan the lowest of 10. In Africa, Nigeria had the highest of 70 and Negroes of South Africa had the lowest of 9.9. In Australia the figure was 20.05. According to the statistics available of the years 1967 till 1996, anencephaly in China had the highest prevalence of 87. In the American continent, state of Michigan in the USA had the highest of 10.5 and Jamaica, in Central America, had the lowest of 2.6. In Europe, Turkey with 16.4 and Italy with 2.73; in Asia, China with 87 and Iran with 0.8 had the highest and the lowest prevalence, respectively. In Africa, Nigeria with 3.5, and in Oceania, Newzeland with 7.8 in 10000, were reported. Data available on spina bifida, from the years 1968 till 1991 showed the highest prevalence in China with 36, and the lowest in the Alps Mountains with 0.55 in 10000 individuals. In the American continent, state of Arkansas with 7.8 and California with 3.87; in Europe, England with 23.1 and Rhein-Alp with 0.55 in 10000 had the highest and the lowest prevalence. Finally, in China this rate was 36, in Australia 10, in Newzeland 9.4, and in Nigeria 7/10000. In a study carried out in Tehran, from 1969 till 1978 by the authors, out of 13037 births, (17.6 in 10000) newborns had NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS, with anencephaly 0.8 and spina bifida 3.8/10000. In a new study on 8585 deliveries (1991-1997) in Hamadan (a North West province of Iran), Prevalence of total NTDs was 50.1/10000, anencephaly 15.6 and spin bifida 6.98.

Background: NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS (NTD) are one of the leading causes of infant mortality worldwide. This study was designed to determine the prevalence of NTDs among native Fars ethnic groups during 1998-2005, and to identify maternal and demographic factors associated with NTDs.Methods: We performed a descriptive cross-sectional hospital-based study in Dezyani Hospital, Gorgan, North of Iran, since January 1998 until December 2005. The design was based on a sample of 30,639 births of native Fars ethnic groups. Data were analyzed by using spss V13.5 software and were compared with the chi-square test.Results: The prevalence of NTDs in Native Fars during the 8-year period was 25.4 per 10000 births (95% confidence interval: 20.1-31.8). The prevalence of NTDs was 20.6/10000 and 30.6/10000 in males and females respectively but this difference was not significant. The prevalence of spina bifida, anencephaly and encephalocele were 12.7, 11.4 and 1.3 per 10000 respectively. The rate of NTD was 48.9/10000 in newborns with mothers aged > 35 years. The highest rate of NTDs and spina bifida was in 2002. The highest and lowest rate of anencephaly was in 2005 and 2003 respectively. Twenty eight percent of the parents had consanguineous marriages. Degree relatedness 3, 4, 5 and 6 of consanguineous marriages were 12.8%, 9%, 3.8%, 2.5%, respectively. Also 47.5% of the parents resided in rural areas.Conclusion: This investigation showed that the rate of NTDs in Native Fars was higher in Iran. In addition, this rate is higher than the Canada and Ukraine and lower than Chinese people.

Context: NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS (NTDs) are one of the most common birth DEFECTS with a high rate of mortality. Several studies have shown the reduction of the rate of NTD due to preconceptional usage and flour fortification with folic acid.Objectives: The aim of this systematic literature review was to assess the appropriate information about the prevalence of NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS among the Iranian population, geographic areas of Iran.Data Sources: We searched PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and data banks in Iran, such as the scientific information database (SID), Magiran, and Barekat knowledge network system from January 1969 to February 2017. The following keywords were used to search all fields in the above databases (“NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS” OR “NTD” AND “Iran”).Study Selection: NTDs were classified as given by Moore to include anencephaly, spina bifida, encephalocele, iniencephaly, and craniorachischisis. Primary outcomes of interest for estimating the prevalences were the total number of births (including live and stillbirths if available separately) and the total number of NTD affected births (including live and stillbirths if available separately). Data Extraction: Data extracted from selected studies, included: first author, study design, city, sample size, duration of studies, and the prevalence of NTDs and subtypes of NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS.Results: A total of 429 studies were initially identified in the databases. After excluding duplicate studies, 244 articles were retrieved and reviewed based on their titles and abstracts; 221 articles were excluded. Twenty-three articles were selected for a more detailed review. There were some publications of the same study, data were extracted from the most complete and up-to-date publication. Four articles were added by reference searching and one forthcoming article was added. Finally, 21 articles have been included in the study.Conclusions: The surveillance of NTD in Iran is currently limited due to the fact that provinces have established systems to report national and local NTD prevalence. However, when data are available, reported NTD prevalence, which varies by geographic region from 1.01 to 8.29 per 1000 live births, is in some areas of Iran.

Background: NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS (NTD) are a group of congenital malformations that include spina bifida, anencephaly and encephalocele. Some investigations have indicated that Zinc deficiency is one of the causative factors of NTDs. This study was done to determine the relation between NEURAL TUBE defect and neonatal serum Zinc level in Gorgan - North of Iran.Methods: This case-control study was carried out on 23 newborns with NTD and 35 healthy newborns, in Dezyani hospital in Gorgannorth of Iran. Serum zinc level was assessed with spectrophotometery. Data was analyzed by SPSS soft ware. Findings: Mean of serum Zinc levels in case and control groups were 8 (±3.9) μmol/Lit and 12.3 (±4) μ Mol/Lit, respectively (p<0.001). Zinc deficiency was found in 43.5% of the cases and 8.6% of the controls (χ2 =9.73, p=0.002). The logistic regression analysis has shown an association between the presence of NTDs and zinc deficiency (OR=8.2, 95%CI: 1.9-34.7).Conclusion: This study showed that Zinc deficiency was thought to be one of the most important factors in the NTDs etiology in this area.

Objective NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS (NTDs) are the most common congenital DEFECTS of central nervous system due to NEURAL TUBE closure deficit during the third and fourth weeks of gestational age. Our study was performed to detect the incidence and risk factors of NTDs in Kashan, center of Iran.Material & Methods This case-control study was done on all pregnancies with NTD affected neonates (n=91) and 209 pregnancies with normal neonates from February 2007 to December 2012 in three hospitals in Kashan, center of Iran. Annual and the mean incidence of NTDs were calculated. Risk factors including neonatal gender, maternal age, gravidity, maternal abortion history, maternal gestational diabetes (GDM), folic acid use, familial marriage, maternal body mass index (BMI), birth season and family history of NTDs were evaluated by interview with mothers. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to analyze the risk factors.Results The mean incidence of NTDs was 2.33 per 1000 births. The multivariate analysis indicated that maternal history of abortion (OR: 4.9, CI: 1.9-12.8), and maternal obesity (OR: 5.4, CI: 1.3-21.8) were significantly associated with NTDs.Conclusion Maternal history of abortion and BMI were the major risk factors of NTDs.