Twin Pregnancies: An 11-Year Review

Abstract

From 1971 to 1981, 16752 women were delivered at the University Women's Clinic in Heidelberg; 228 of these were twin pregnancies (1.36%). The relationships between sex, gestational age, birthweight, mortality, and fetal outcome were investigated. For the reason of grading, so-called chi 2 curves are used. These curves show the strength and the course of relationship between two parameters. Mortality of the twin (8.3%) depended on birthweight and on sex of the infant, but not on the mode of delivery. All twins were 'small-for-date' (25th weight percentile of single births). Starting at the 35th week of gestation, the increase in weight decelerated additionally. So, immaturity as well as twin-related factors led to the high mortality rate for twins. Fetal outcome was evaluated in respect to the birthweight and to the delivery interval.

Localised enamel hypoplasia of human deciduous canines: genotype or environment?

“…Parity is also important.The s e c o n d -b o rn twin is at gr e ater risk of ox y g e n deficiency and birth trauma due to abnormal uterine positioning. 13 A higher frequency of low birth weight resulting from nutritional deficiency has also been o b s e rve d . 1 4 Pe ri n atal and prenatal gr owth retardat i o n and prematurity observed in twins may be factors a s s o c i ated with the aetiology of the hypoplastic lesion.…”

The Epidemiology of Perinatal Mortality in Multiple Births

“…Twins have a four to ten fold greater perinatal mortality rate than do singletons. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Twins are much more likely to be born prematurely7-'0 and to be small for gestational age.2,5,7,11,12 Twins also have a higher rate of permanent physical and mental retardation than do singletons. 13,14 This study investigated some reasons for the increased perinatal mortality risk in multiple births.…”

Perinatal mortality among twins and singletons in a city in southeastern Brazil, 1984-1996

“…The clinical condition of the newborns was evaluated using Apgar scores (Apgar, 1953) obtained 1 min and 5 min after birth. Apgar scores were divided into two classes: < 7 (bad prognosis) and ≥ 7 (good prognosis), since scores varying from 7 to 10 indicated a very low risk of respiratory or neuropsychomotor developmental complications, while scores from 4 to 6 indicated moderate asphyxia, and scores lower than 4 were associated with a high risk of mortality and cerebral palsy (Grothe and Rüttgers, 1985;Committee on Fetus and Newborn, AAP, 1986;Fanaroff and Martin, 1992).…”