Neural tube defects in Wales: changing demographics from 1998 to 2009.

Objective: To establish if there is evidence for the perceived increase in the number of live births with a Neural tube defect (NTD) in South Wales from 1998 to 2009.

Methods: Data was obtained from the Congenital Abnormalities Register Information Services (CARIS), which recorded 305 cases of pregnancies involving neural tube defects. Descriptive analysis was carried out for each year in this period to obtain the number of live births, the proportion of live births compared to NTD pregnancies, plus the number and the percentage terminated each year.

Ischaemic stroke among young people aged 15 to 50 years in Adelaide, South Australia.

Objectives: To report risk factors, aetiology and neuroimaging features among a large series of young Australian patients who were admitted to hospital for a first-ever occurrence of ischaemic stroke; to analyse the effect of age, sex and ethnicity on the presence of risk factors; and to compare Australian and overseas data.

Design, Setting And Patients: Retrospective evaluation of data for all patients aged from 15 to 50 years who were admitted to a public hospital in Adelaide, South Australia, from January 2006 to June 2010 with a primary diagnosis of ischaemic stroke.

Results: Among 326 patients (184 males), the most frequent stroke risk factors overall were dyslipidaemia (187), smoking (161), hypertension (105) and obesity (92).