American Journal of Medical Genetics 39:494 (1991)

Letter to the Editor

Reply to Drs. Urioste and Martinez-F’rias

To the Editor:

Thank you for sending me the letter by Urioste and Martinez-E’rias. It has very interesting data; however, they refer to our article with some inexactitude. Our results were given as anal atresia on the one hand and anorectal malformation on the other hand. In their let- ter the authors are comparing the incidence of anorectal malformations in their children with Down syndrome (0.36%) to our incidence of anal atresia in children with Down syndrome (2.2%). They should have used the inci- dence of anorectal malformations in our children with Down syndrome; namely 3.3% and not 2.2%. I do not know which statistical analysis was used but with the x2

test the difference is statistically significant. In addi- tion, we observed the same relatively high incidence of anorectal malformations in Jewish children with Down syndrome in the years previous to those of this study. Between 1973 to 1980,84 children were born in Jerusa- lem with Down syndrome and among them 3 had imper- forate anus, namely 3.6%.

Joel Zlotogora Department of Human Genetics Hadassah Medical Center Jerusalem, il 91120, Israel

Received for publication February 15, 1990.

0 1991 Wiley-Liss, Inc.