Expanding the Massachusetts Birth Defects Monitoring Program to include additional pregnancy outcomes: Programmatic efforts and impacts on case ascertainment, 2012-2020.

Background: Birth defects affect 1 in 33 infants in the United States and are a leading cause of infant mortality. Birth defects surveillance is crucial for informing public health action. The Massachusetts Birth Defects Monitoring Program (MBDMP) began collecting other pregnancy losses (OPLs) in 2011, including miscarriages (<20 weeks gestation) or elective terminations (any gestational age), in addition to live births and stillbirths (≥20 weeks gestation).

Identifying possible inaccuracy in reported birth head circumference measurements among infants in the US Zika Pregnancy and Infant Registry.

Background: The US Zika Pregnancy and Infant Registry (USZPIR) monitors infants born to mothers with confirmed or possible Zika virus infection during pregnancy. The surveillance case definition for Zika-associated birth defects includes microcephaly based on head circumference (HC).

Methods: We assessed birth and follow-up data from infants with birth HC measurements <3rd percentile and birthweight ≥10th percentile to determine possible misclassification of microcephaly.

Accuracy of birth certificate head circumference measurements: Massachusetts, 2012-2013.

Background: Zika virus has recently emerged as a novel cause of microcephaly. CDC has asked states to rapidly ascertain and report cases of Zika-linked birth defects, including microcephaly. Massachusetts added head circumference to its birth certificate (BC) in 2011.

Malformations Surveillance: Comparison between Findings at Birth and Age 1 Year.

Background: Malformations surveillance programs among newborn infants are used to determine the prevalence of congenital anomalies. A comparison in the same group of infants between the malformations detected at birth and those detected at 1 year of age will identify errors in the surveillance process and, also, the abnormalities more likely not to be detected at birth, but later in the first year of life.

Methods: The malformations identified at birth by Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in the years 2000 and 2005 have been compared with the abnormalities detected in the same infants up to age 1 year by the Massachusetts Birth Defects Monitoring Program.

Baseline Prevalence of Birth Defects Associated with Congenital Zika Virus Infection - Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia, 2013-2014.

Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause serious brain abnormalities, but the full range of adverse outcomes is unknown (1). To better understand the impact of birth defects resulting from Zika virus infection, the CDC surveillance case definition established in 2016 for birth defects potentially related to Zika virus infection* (2) was retrospectively applied to population-based birth defects surveillance data collected during 2013-2014 in three areas before the introduction of Zika virus (the pre-Zika years) into the World Health Organization's Region of the Americas (Americas) (3). These data, from Massachusetts (2013), North Carolina (2013), and Atlanta, Georgia (2013-2014), included 747 infants and fetuses with one or more of the birth defects meeting the case definition (pre-Zika prevalence = 2.

Delayed diagnosis of critical congenital heart defects: trends and associated factors.

Objective: We aimed to examine trends in timing of diagnosis of critical congenital heart defects (CCHDs) and factors associated with delayed diagnosis (diagnosis after discharge home following delivery).

Methods: We examined a population-based retrospective cohort of CCHD cases among live births identified through the Massachusetts Birth Defects Monitoring Program. Congenital heart defects were considered critical if the infant received corrective surgery, interventional catheterization, palliative care, or died as a result of the defect within 12 months of birth.

Clinician reviewers in birth defects surveillance programs: survey of the National Birth Defects Prevention Network.

Background: Some birth defects surveillance programs utilize a clinician reviewer ("Clinician") to assist the multidisciplinary staff in the process of case review, coding and classification. The untested assumption is that expertise in the evaluation of individuals with birth defects and genetic syndromes in clinical practice, usually clinical genetics, is useful in reviewing medical records.

Methods: We conducted an exploratory survey of the 50 functioning birth defects surveillance programs that participated in the National Birth Defects Prevention Network in 2004.