DETECTION OF SEGMENTARY HETEROCHROMIA IN 

 FOETUSES IRRADIATED IN UTERO 



J. LEJEUNE AND M.-O. EETHORE 

 Faculte de Medecine, Institut de Progenese, Paris, France 



As a marker of possible somatic effects of in utero irradiation, segmentary 

 heterochromia of the iris has been studied by us (Lejeune et at., 1960). 



A second enquiry complementary to the first is now completed and the 

 convergence of the results seems to warrant this preliminary presentation. 



Technical data have been dealt with previously and only the broad 

 characteristics of the enquiry will be repeated here. 



SELECTION OF THE DATA 

 Index cases 



Observations of mothers, irradiated on the pelvis or the abdomen during 

 pregnancy were systematically searched for in the files of a large maternity 

 hospital. For each case, the mode of irradiation and the date of application, 

 were recorded. The period from 1946 to 1954 was covered. The irradiated 

 children are now between 8 and 18 years old, a fact which simplifies all the 

 investigations concerning pigmentation. 



Control cases 



For each indexed case the closest file of a non-irradiated mother of the 

 same class-age and same parity was selected as a control. (Some of these were 

 subsequently found to have been irradiated at another hospital or for another 

 pregnancy.) 



Examination at home was performed for the indexed cases and the 

 control cases, as well as for their parents and siblings. The actual total of the 

 two enquiries, subjected to a small increase after definite completion, was 

 1,101 for children irradiated in utero, out of a grand total of 8,193 persons 

 examined. 



The absence of statistical differences between control cases, their sibs, the 

 sibs of the index cases, and even the parents of both categories, with regard 

 to some pigment characteristics, allows us to use these subsamples as pooled 

 data. 



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