Perinatal mortality and prevalence of major congenital malformations of twins in Taipei City

Abstract

In order to examine perinatal mortality and prevalence of major congenital malformations in twins, deliveries in four teaching hospitals in Taipei City were studied. Among a total of 73,264 deliveries from October 1985 to June 1989, there were 844 pairs of twins. The zygosity of the twin pairs was determined by sex, placentation and 12 red blood cell antigens. There were 482 MZ and 252 DZ twin pairs identified, but the zygosity of a further 110 twin pairs was indeterminable due to lack of information on plancentation and/or blood types. A total of 4,573 singletons delivered in one study hospital from July 1986 to June 1987 were also studied as controls. The perinatal mortality rate was 7.5% for MZ twins, 1.4% for DZ twins, and 0.7% for singletons. The concordance rate of perinatal death was significantly higher in MZ (60%) than in DZ (0%) twins. The prevalence of major congenital malformations was 2.7% for MZ twins, 1.0% for DZ twins, and 0.6% for singletons. The concordance rate of major congenital malformations was 18% for MZ twins, but no DZ pair was concordant in any major congenital malformation. The concordance rate of facial clefts was 29% for MZ twins. There were 2 sets of conjoined twins giving a prevalence rate of 2.7 per 100,000 deliveries. These findings showing the prevalence of perinatal mortality and major congenital malformation to be highest in MZ twins, intermediate in DZ twins and lowest in singletons, suggest the importance of intrauterine environments in the determination of perinatal mortality and congenital malformations.