(1974). Archives of Disease in Childhood, 49, 927. Congenital hypoplasia of depressor anguli oris muscle: a genetically determined condition? The frequency of hypoplasia of the depressor anguli oris muscle was 37 cases among 4 530 consecutive births (8 -2 %). Diagnosis was based on clinical and electromyographic studies. Severe congenital anomalies were detected in 3 of the 37 cases, while another 3 newborns had minor congenital defects. In 17 of the 37 cases there were first-or second-degree relatives with lower lip asymmetry. A minimum of 13 out of the 74 parents of the probands were affected. The high incidence of affection among first-degree relatives of the probands is strong evidence of hereditary factors playing a role in the aetiology of this anomaly.

No abstract

SNAP is a useful tool in medical research and can be applied in different population groups. Its independence from birth weight underlines its added value to predict fatality ratios. Moreover, the results of the present study indicate that SNAP can be estimated without loss of predictive efficiency during the first 12 hours from admission to the NICU, whereas SNAP during the second 12 hours adequately reflects the effectiveness of early medical interventions.

No abstract

A combined evaluation of almost all the proposed morphologic and neurologic criteria for estimating gestational age in the neonate was performed on 710 newborns of 28 to 44 weeks' gestation. It is concluded that (1) the neurologic criteria used by Dubowitz et al in combination with the external (morphologic) criteria of Farr et al give very accurate results of estimation of the gestational age; (2) equally accurate results can be obtained if those criteria with the lowest correlation coefficients--namely, are and leg recoil, degree of edema, and appearance of the genitalia--are omitted; and (3) the use of only nine external criteria, the assessment of which is easier to perform on sick babies, gives an estimation of gestational age that is accurate for clinical purposes (r=0.878).