EUROCAT: Conveillance of congenital abnomalies in the Eastern Health Board Region: 1980-1987.

The acronym EUROCAT comes from the concerted action project on European registries of congenital anomalies and twins. The original idea came from Dr. Geoffrey Dean, the then director of the Medico-Social Research Board and Professor M. Lechat of the School of Public Health, Ciuholic University of Louvin, Brussels. Both ofthem did the pilot study to assess the feasibility of such a concerted action project. Later on, the registration of twins was abandoned, because the Dublin centre was the only one providing the information on twins. The Dublin· register covers the Eastern Health Board Region. Other participating centres and registry leaders are listed in Appendix I. The specific objectives of the Dublin surveillance system are: (a) to record reliable epidemiological information on the occurrence of . birth defects in a defined population; . (b) to provide baseline rates for monitoring the changes in the incidence of anomalies; (c) to monitor births for changes in the incidence of anomalies or an appearance of a new anomaly; (d) to provide an index of individuals for each anomaly for further research; (e) to provide a service to the Directors of Comrnunity Care by informing them about the affected babies in their areas. The anomalies that are being registered are the structural anomalies, the chromosomal anomalies and certain metabolic disorders. A variety of syndromes are also included. Certain minor malformations are excluded from monitoring. these are listed in Appendix II.