Constitutional osteochondrodysplasias identifiable a birth. A short review on the state of the art in radiodiagnostic in the late 20. century

The value of a systematic radiologic analysis in constitutional osteochondrodysplasias remains underestimated by both neonatologists and radiologists. The authors report the clinical experience of the Department of Neonatology and Neonatal Intensive Cure Unit of St. John Hospital in Rome with constitutional osteochondrodysplasias identifiable at birth. The authors justify the relatively high incidence of constitutional osteochondrodysplasias in this study (66% versus an average incidence of 0,076% reported in the world population) on the basis of: a) an increasing number of high-risk newborns in the intensive cure; b) an improvement in our clinical and radiologic diagnostic skill. They conclude that the state of the art of diagnostic of constitutional osteochondrodysplasiasin still based on the first plain X-ray examination performed at birth because of cardiorespiratory and/or abdominal diseases in the newborn