Familial communicating hydrocephalus, posterior cerebellar agenesis, mega cisterna magna, and port-wine nevi. Report on five members of one family.

This report deals with a family in which the maternal grandmother, the mother, and all three male children have port-wine nevi and mega cisterna magna. Two of the three male children have, in addition, congenital communicating hydrocephalus associated with agenesis of the posterior cerebellar vermis. This case of familial communicating hydrocephalus, posterior cerebellar vermis agenesis, port-wine nevus, and mega cisterna magna represents a new neurocutaneous syndrome, possibly transmitted as an autosomal dominant.

Family size and malnutrition in Santo Domingo.

A case-control study of 82 urban Dominican women with a malnourished child and 82 women with a well-nourished child of the same age, sex, and neighborhood of residence revealed that the women of the control group had significantly lower parity and also had fewer living children. More women in the case group had used contraception at one time. Nevertheless, the prevalence of current contraceptive use was identical in the two groups. More women in the control group had undergone one or more spontaneous or induced abortions. Although the women in both groups were selected from the same neighborhoods, there is evidence to suggest that the the women in the control group may have had higher family incomes. The higher incomes could well account, at least in part, for the difference in parity between the two groups as well as for the difference in nutritional status in the preschool children of the mothers of these groups.

PIP: A study was undertaken in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to identify the determinants of malnutrition in preschool children. The case-control study is explained. Women in the study with well-nourished children were found to have significantly lower parity and fewer living children than women in the study with malnourished children. More case than control women had at one time used contraception but current contraceptive use showed no such similar differences. A significantly greater number of the control women had experienced 1 or more abortion, spontaneous or induced. The findings tend to confirm previous findings in Colombia and Thailand of an association between family size and preschool-child malnutrition. There is, however, some evidence that women in the control group may have had higher family incomes which might account for the differences in parity observed between the 2 groups.