Abstract

This study was undertaken to establish the prevalence rates at birth of the skeletal dysplasias that can be recognised in the perinatal period. Using the data base of the Latin-American Collaborative Study of Congenital Malformations (ECLAMC), for the years 1978 to 1983, on 349 470 births (live and stillbirths), a crude prevalence rate of 2.3/10 000 was observed. However, several indications of under-registration suggest that the real value is about twice that observed. The most frequent types of skeletal dysplasia were achondroplasia, with a prevalence rate between 0.5 and 1.5/10 000 births, the thanatophoric dysplasia/achondrogenesis group (0.2 and 0.5/10 000 births), and osteogenesis imperfecta (0.4/10 000 births). The mutation rate for autosomal dominant achondroplasia was estimated at between 1.72 and 5.57 X 10(-5) per gamete per generation.