Congenital cardiovascular malformations in twins and triplets from a population-based study

K. A. Berg, J. A. Astemborski, J. A. Boughman and C. Ferencz
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore.

Data from the Baltimore-Washington Infant Study of congenital cardiovascular malformations permitted detailed analysis of congenital cardiovascular malformations in 62 twins and 3 triplets and 2303 singleton cases. A probability sample of controls (n = 2793) included 43 twins. The case prevalence of multiple births was 28 of 1000, compared with a 15 of 1000 prevalence among controls (chi 2 = 5.7). There were more girls among case twins than among case singletons and controls (chi 2 = 9.0). Monozygosity was no more frequent in case twins than in controls. Looping defects occurred in 4 monozygotic twin pairs compared with only 1 dizygotic twin pair. The twinning process itself may be implicated in the development of congenital cardiovascular malformations in some of these infants, especially those with looping defects, but concordance of types of defects in 4 of 65 pairs implicates genetic factors in the determination of some forms of congenital cardiovascular malformations.