[Incidence of chromosomal anomalies and congenital malformations in children born from assisted fertilization].

The introduction and widespread application of Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART) have raised major concern about the offspring 's health. The incidence of congenital and chromosomal anomalies after standard In Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer seems to be similar to that expected in the general population. The prevalence of congenital malformations does not seem to be higher in children conceived by ICSI. On the other hand, it seems that there is a slight risk for transmission of chromosomal aberration of paternal origin and a certain risk of de novo sex-chromosomal and structural aberrations after ICSI. We report the results of the follow-up of 938 children conceived in our public ART by standard IVF(649) and by ICSI(289) from 21-2-1987 to 30-6-1999. The incidence of the congenital malformations results of the 1.8% (17/938); the incidence of chromosomal anomalies results 0.5% (5/938). The incidence of congenital malformations and chromosomal anomalies results 1.5% (10/649) and 0.6% (4/649), respectively, for standard IVF and 2.4% (7/289) and 0.3% (1/289) for ICSI. Our data seems to be reassuring but the incidence of chromosomal anomalies in ICSI children needs further investigation.