Anencephaly

Introduction: Anencephaly

Anencephaly: Anencephaly is a neural tube defect (a disorder involving incomplete development of the brain, spinal cord, and/or their protective ... more about Anencephaly.

Anencephaly: A birth defect where most or all of the brain is missing - most die before birth. Usually the associated portions of skull and other tissue are also missing. More detailed information about the symptoms, causes, and treatments of Anencephaly is available below.

Symptoms of Anencephaly

• Blindness
• Deafness
• Unconsciousness
• Inability to feel pain
• Stillbirth

See full list of 10 symptoms of Anencephaly

Medical Textbooks Online about Anencephaly

Book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.

Wrongly Diagnosed with Anencephaly?

• Misdiagnosis of Anencephaly
• Underlying causes of Anencephaly (possibly wrongly diagnosed)

Misdiagnosis and Anencephaly

Undiagnosed stroke leads to misdiagnosed aphasia: BBC News UK reported on a man who had been institutionalized and treated for mental illness because...read more »

Dementia may be a drug interaction: A common scenario in aged care is for a patient to show mental decline to dementia. Whereas this can, of course, occur due to...read more »

Mild traumatic brain injury often remains undiagnosed: Although the symptoms of severe brain injury are hard to miss, it is less clear for milder injuries, or even those causing a mild concussion diagnosis. The...read more »

MTBI misdiagnosed as balance problem: When a person has symptoms such as vertigo or dizziness, a diagnosis of brain injury may go overlooked. This is...read more »

Brain pressure condition often misdiagnosed as dementia: A condition that results from an excessive pressure of CSF within the brain is often...read more »

Post-concussive brain injury often misdiagnosed: A study found that soldiers who had suffered a concussive injury in battle often were misdiagnosed on their return. A variety of symptoms can...read more »

Children with migraine often misdiagnosed: A migraine often fails to be correctly diagnosed in pediatric patients. These patients are not the typical...read more »

Read more about Misdiagnosis and Anencephaly

Causes of Anencephaly

Read more about causes of Anencephaly.

More information about causes of Anencephaly:

• Anencephaly as a symptom

Videos for Anencephaly

Patient Surveys for Anencephaly

• Patient Profile Survey
  Take Survey  View Results
• Survey about the symptoms of your Anencephaly
  Take Survey  View Results

Prognosis for Anencephaly

Prognosis for Anencephaly: Poor. Newborn usually dies within days.

More about prognosis of Anencephaly

Reseach about Anencephaly

Visit our research pages for current research about Anencephaly treatments.

Clinical Trials for Anencephaly

The US based website ClinicalTrials.gov lists information on both federally and privately supported clinical trials using human volunteers.

Some of the clinical trials listed on ClinicalTrials.gov for Anencephaly include:

• Dosage Effects of Folic Acid on Blood Folates of Honduran Women - This study has been completed (Current: 23 Nov 2006) - folic acid
• Blood Folate and Homocysteine Levels Following Administration of Folic Acid According to Different Daily Dosing Schedules:a Simulation of Food Fortification - This study has been completed (Current: 23 Nov 2006) - folic acid

Read more about Clinical Trials for Anencephaly

Prevention of Anencephaly

Prevention information for Anencephaly has been compiled from various data sources and may be inaccurate or incomplete. None of these methods guarantee prevention of Anencephaly.

• Folate

Read more about prevention of Anencephaly

Statistics for Anencephaly

• Medical statistics for Anencephaly
• Prevalence and incidence statistics for Anencephaly
• Death and Mortality statistics for Anencephaly
• Society statistics for Anencephaly

Stories from Users Related to Anencephaly

• Can anyone help diagnose me? Weird brain episodes.
• Brain is shrinking...Help!!!
• Strange manifestations of light and sound in brain at night
• brain quivering feeling HELP
• A very interesting case "part 2"
• Heaviness in brain
• Brain twitches?
• Tingling underneath skull
• help. brain damadge?
• Issue with my... brain?
• brain calcification
• waiting is the hardest part....
• Brain strinking. What does that mean? Help
• penis redish and whitish in some parts
• Update: Mri Brain Findings
• I am worried this is linked to my brain.....
• Large colon swelling - constipation?
• My wife was right, I have 1/2 a brain
• Randomly Paralyzed Body Parts(about once a week)
• Heat on brain, WHY is it there???

Related forums and stories:

• Brain Conditions (194)
  • arachnoid cyst
  • Pain/Pressure in back of head when I laugh
  • Fluid running down back of my head feeling
  • vertigo + other symptoms
  • "ice Pick" Headaches
  • More user stories
• Congenital Conditions (13)
  • Marfan.
  • Marfan: Symptoms of Pneumothorax?
  • I have KFS
  • my baby born without soft spots
  • New Member with Hereditary KLIPPEL-FEIL SYNDROME (KFS)
  • More user stories

User Interactive Forums

Read about other experiences, ask a question about Anencephaly, or answer someone else's question, on our message boards:

• I can not get a diagnosis. Please help.
• Tell us your medical story.
• Share your misdiagnosis story.
• What is the best treatment for this?
• See all the forums.

Article Excerpts about Anencephaly

NINDS Anencephaly Information Page: NINDS (Excerpt)

Anencephaly is a neural tube defect (a disorder involving incomplete development of the brain, spinal cord, and/or their protective coverings). The neural tube is a narrow sheath that folds and closes between the 3rd and 4th weeks of pregnancy to form the brain and spinal cord of the embryo. (Source: excerpt from NINDS Anencephaly Information Page: NINDS)

Folic Acid: NWHIC (Excerpt)

Babies with anencephaly do not develop a brain or only develop a partial brain. These babies die either before birth or shortly afterwards. (Source: excerpt from Folic Acid: NWHIC)

Definitions of Anencephaly:

A malformation of the nervous system caused by failure of the anterior neuropore to close. Infants are born with intact spinal cords, cerebellums, and brainstems, but lack formation of neural structures above this level. The skull is only partially formed but the eyes are usually normal. This condition may be associated with folate deficiency. Affected infants are only capable of primitive (brain stem) reflexes and usually do not survive for more than two weeks. (From Menkes, Textbook of Child Neurology, 5th ed, p247) - (Source - Diseases Database)

A defect in brain development resulting in small or missing brain hemispheres - (Source - WordNet 2.1)

Anencephaly is listed as a "rare disease" by the Office of Rare Diseases (ORD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This means that Anencephaly, or a subtype of Anencephaly, affects less than 200,000 people in the US population.
Source - National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Ophanet, a consortium of European partners, currently defines a condition rare when it affects 1 person per 2,000. They list Anencephaly as a "rare disease".
Source - Orphanet