On the History of Hellin's Law

Fellman, Johan; Eriksson, Aldur W.

doi:10.1375/twin.12.2.183

Cited by 21 publications

(48 citation statements)

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“…There were 370 triplets in 2,473,209 births, or one triplet in 6,684 births. This outcome is reasonable well in line with Hellin's law [31], [32] which says that if the number of twins is one in X, the number of triplets is one in X 2 . With one in 80.05 births being a twin birth (all births in the DHS data taken together), this rule predicts the triplet incidence to be one in 6,408.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 84%

Twinning across the Developing World

2011

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BackgroundUntil now, little was known about the variation in incidence of twin births across developing countries, because national representative data was lacking. This study provides the first comprehensive overview of national twinning rates across the developing world on the basis of reliable survey data.MethodsData on incidence of twinning was extracted from birth histories of women aged 15–49 interviewed in 150 Demographic and Health Surveys, held between 1987 and 2010 in 75 low and middle income countries. During the interview, information on all live births experienced by the women was recorded, including whether it was a singleton or multiple birth. Information was available for 2.47 million births experienced by 1.38 million women in a period of ten years before the interview. Twinning incidence was measured as the number of twin births per thousand births. Data for China were computed on the basis of published figures from the 1990 census. Both natural and age-standardized twinning rates are presented.Results/ConclusionsThe very low natural twinning rates of 6–9 per thousand births previously observed in some East Asian countries turn out to be the dominant pattern in the whole South and South-East Asian region. Very high twinning rates of above 18 per thousand are not restricted to Nigeria (until now seen as the world's twinning champion) but found in most Central-African countries. Twinning rates in Latin America turn out to be as low as those in Asia. Changes over time are small and not in a specific direction.SignificanceWe provide the most complete and comparable overview of twinning rates across the developing world currently possible.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 84%

Twinning across the Developing World

2011

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“…According to Hellin's law, the frequency of twin pregnancies is one in 85 births (3), but the actual frequency of twin pregnancies has approximately tripled.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of placental vascularization indices in monochorionic diamniotic and dichorionic diamniotic twin pregnancies

Altorjay

Nyári

Gyurkovits

et al. 2018

European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductiv

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Objectives We aimed to investigate and compare placental vascularization indices between monochorionic-diamniotic, dichorionic-diamniotic normal twin pregnancies, and normal singular pregnancies. We hypothesized that there is correlation between placental three-dimensional power Doppler vascularization indices and birth weight in case of twin pregnancies, and that normal singular pregnancies have higher placental vascularization indices than normal twin pregnancies. Results Vascularization indices and birth weight were significantly (p<0.01) higher in normal singular gestations (vascularization index=10.36, flow index=46.08, vascularization-flow index=4.08, average birth weight=3377g at 38.2 weeks average gestational age) compared to monochorionic-diamniotic and dichorionic-diamniotic normal twin pregnancies. No significant differences were found in vascularization indices between monochorionic-diamniotic and dichorionic-diamniotic normal twins. There were no significant differences in APGAR score, umbilical pH, umbilical venous bicarbonate, lactate, and base excess between groups examined (p<0.01). We found strong linear correlations between placental vascularization indices and birth Study design ABBREVIATIONS:There are no abbreviations.

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“…It is of particular interest to determine why the rates of higher multiple maternities are sometimes too high or too low when Hellin's law is used as a benchmark. The analysis of Fellman and Eriksson [1] of triplet and quadruplet rates indicated that triplet rates are closer to Hellin's law than quadruplet rates. According to the analyses by Fellman and Eriksson [2] of the twinning rate and the transformed triplet rate and quadruplet rate for Sweden , both triplet and quadruplet rates showed excesses after the 1960s.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Westergaard [6] has devoted a whole chapter in his history of statistics to the presentations of the statistical congresses in the middle of the nineteenth century and their importance [1]. The first congress was held in Brussels in 1853.…”

Section: Prerequisites For Twinning Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Studies of Hellin’s Law

Fellman¹

2019

Multiple Pregnancy - New Challenges

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Theorems, proofs, laws and rules are commonly named according to the presumed discoverer, but often earlier investigators have contributed substantially to the findings. One example of this is Hellin's law, which was named after Hellin, although he was not the first to derive it. In research on twinning and higher multiple maternities, the law has played a central role because it is approximately correct, despite showing discrepancies that are difficult to explain or eliminate. However, most studies are based on empirical rates of multiple maternities. Such studies can only serve to identify errors too large to be characterized as random. It has been mathematically proven that Hellin's law does not hold as a general rule. Consequently, improvements to this law have been proposed.

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On the History of Hellin's Law

Cited by 21 publications

References 24 publications

Twinning across the Developing World

Twinning across the Developing World

Evaluation of placental vascularization indices in monochorionic diamniotic and dichorionic diamniotic twin pregnancies

Historical Studies of Hellin’s Law

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