A new section has been set up in the registry in order to survey the impact of prenatal diagnostics and selective abortions on the rate of congenital anomalies. The Malformation Registry is national and population based. The follow-up is up to 1 year of age. The number of registered cases is approximately 1,000 per year. A standardized malformation notification form is sent by the doctors to the registry as soon as the malformation is detected.
Cytogenetic laboratories report chromosomal anomalies once a year.
The National Board of Medicolegal Affairs gives mounthly prenatal information on selective abortion cases and the Prenatal Registry asks doctors for postabortion fetal information on a follow-up notification form. All notified cases are checked by the registry personnel and the diagnoses are corrected, confirmed, classified and coded by a clinical geneticist. The final exclusion of non-malformation cases is also done by clinical geneticists. The Malformation Registry collects information on congenital structural anomalies, chromosomal abnormalities and congenital hypothyroidism. The Prenatal Registry collects information of all fetal birth defects of selective abortions.