Birth Defects - - a Major Unsolved Problem

              Sunday. April 19, 1970 THE SHREVEPORT TIMES
Birth Defects - - a Major Unsolved Problem
Planned Center Here Would Launch Attack
By Margaret Martin
Times Medical Writer
Birth defects.
If you're a parent, you've known the
lanxiety of wondering whether a xhild
|would be born normal.
If you're not, you've known or seen
Ichildren who have been born with birth
Idefects.
A birth defect can be anything from a
small blood vessel tumor to the death of a
child before birth. It can mean congenital
heart disease or can be the common
birthmark — which isn't always so
common.
At least one hereditary disease, Hunt-ington's
chorea, may not appear until a
person is in his sixties.
Scientists say, a birth defect is "any
malformation or defect of body chemistry
present at birth . . . "
One kind deals with the fetus environ-ment
and the other has to do with the
effects of heredity on the unborn. Both are
congential, but the hereditary type is
called a "genetic defect."
According to the National Foundation,
one in every 16 babies born in the United
States has a serious birth defect, which is
250,000 babies a year. Of these 34,000 are
stillborn or die in the first month of life.
With genetic counseling today, birth
defects many times can be spotted before
a child is born. Through counseling, some
couples are told that certain inherited
disease can be prevented only by avoiding
pregnancy.
Through a birth defects center, child-ren
born with a birth defect can
sometimes be treated early.
In Shreveport today, there are no
facilities for either detecting or counseling
as such. A check for abnormalities must
be made in Dallas or New Orleans — but
doctors in this area are being told
"not to send them, we are too busy
handling our own."
Plans are now being made, though, to
start a Chromosomal Diagnostic Birth
Defects and Genetic Counseling Center at
Louisiana State University Medical School
at Shreveport, under the direction of Dr.
Joseph Little, head of the Department of
Pediatrics.
Approximately $56,000 is needed for the
center, including the salary for a Ph.D. in
cytology, said Dr. Little.
The school has applied for about
$13,000 from the March of Dimes for an
initial budget for the center.
According to LaRue Bolin of the
Shreveport March of Dimes, the National
Medical Committee will make a site visit
to LSU this summer "and will make an
official announcement at a later date."
Funds from the 5th annual Shreveport
Charity Horse Show will go to the medical
school for the center, the Shreveport
Horse Show Association and the Shreve-pcrt
Jaycees, sponsors of the show have
announced.
The show will be held May 6-9 at the
Hirsch Youth Center.
Purpose of the center, said Dr. Little,
"is to make available to the people of
this region a diagnostic laboratory that
will help in genetic counseling and lead to
further investigation of birth defects."
"We feel that this diagnostic laboratory
will fill an important and otherwise unmet
need in the region," he added.
The center will be run by the medical
school and will be available for use by the
Shreveport area community.
Within the past few years, "there have
been great advances in this area,"
although "the problem of birth defects is
one of the major unsolved problems of
modern medicine."
Dr. Little said physicians do know that
defects have two origins — an abnormali-ty
of the environment of the developing
embryo, such as in the case of German
measles, or inherited, which means the
defect was transmitted to the offspring
through the chromosomes of the mother
and/or father.
He said the chromosomes can be
abnormal themselves or can be abnormal
in development.
In the chromosome laboratory, detec-tion
can be made as to the number of
chromosomes and whether the makeup is
normal, including specific abnormalities
of each chromosome.
Dr. Little said. "We hope locally to
study and determine the chemical abnor-mality
which causes certain birth de-fects."
From the studies made at the center,
physicians could give genetic counseling
to parents concerning chances of having
children with specific birth defects.
In some areas of genetic counseling,
the doctors can take a look at the
chromosomes and tell the changes of the
baby being born with a certain defect.
"We can advise parents of the
possibility of having an 'RH baby,' and
more important today, we can treat the
mother to prevent problems in RH
incompatibility," he added. This type help
comes from birth defect research.
In the case of a child with cystic
fibrosis of the pancreas, we can advise
the parents of the chances of having other
children born with the disease.
"No study can be done in the parent to
predict occurrence of this disease in the
first child, however," he said.
Dr. Little said some of the tests in the
center wruld be relatively simple, while
others would be quite involved.