Clustering of anophthalmia and microphthalmia

BMJ 1998;317:895-896 ( 3 October )

Editorials

Clustering of anophthalmia and microphthalmia

No clustering has been found $---$ but a link seems to exist with population density

Papers p 905

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A few years ago public concern was raised in England by the appearance of apparent clusters of cases of anophthalmia and microphthalmia.¹The pesticide benomyl, and later on its derivative carbendazim,was suspected to be the cause of the alleged clustering. In responseto a press campaign the government in 1993 commissioned furtherresearch, although without clearly indicating the direction forthe investigations. In this week's issue Dolk et al publish theresults of that research (p 905).² Although they did not confirmclustering, their results raise further, interesting,questions.

Microphthalmia is a general term used to describe a broad range of improperly developed, small eyes in newborn children. Oneend of the range is marked by babies with complete absence ofeyes $---$ that is, anophthalmia $---$ whereas at the other end are casesthat are rather arbitrarily diagnosed because no clear cut borderexists between mild microphthalmia and small normal eyes. Often. . . [Full text of this article]

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Geographical variation in anophthalmia and microphthalmia in England, 1988-94 • Commentary: Clustering of anophthalmia and microphthalmia is not supported by the data: H Dolk, A Busby, B G Armstrong, P H Walls, and Jack Cuzick
BMJ 1998 317: 905-910. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]