[National Competence Network Contergan - Ensuring medical care for people with thalidomide embryopathy]. / Nationales Kompetenznetzwerk Contergan ­ Sicherstellung der medizinischen Versorgung von Menschen mit Thalidomid-Embryopathie.

In 2021, a national network of multidisciplinary medical competence-centers has established itself in Germany that is committed to ensuring the care of people with thalidomide embryopathy. This article would like to draw attention to this competence network and give an overview of the most important medical care needs of aging people with thalidomide-induced body and sensory impairments. Here, the available scientific evidence and clinical peculiarities in medical care from a general medical-internal, orthopedic-paintherapeutic, sociomedical and psychosomatic-psychotherapeutic perspective will be presented and necessary tasks for the future will be discussed.

Reference tables with centiles of limb to body height ratios of healthy human adults for assessing potential thalidomide embryopathy.

Background: Over 60 years ago the biggest drug catastrophe in Germany took place. The drug thalidomide, sold by the German pharmaceutical company Chemie Grünenthal GmbH starting in 1957 under the name "Contergan", caused severe birth defects in newborns. Chemie Grünenthal withdraw Contergan in 1961. Until nearly 30 years later in 1988 there were already over 10.000 children born with severe birth defects (e.g. dysmelia, amelia, congenital heart defect). Due to the high variability of the birth defects caused by thalidomide, later called thalidomide embryopathy, there is still no detailed information about the proportions of limbs. Aim: The aim is to develop reference centiles for limb measurements of men and women aged 19-70 years old. Method: For the calculation, data of healthy men and women (m = 2984, f = 2838) from former East Germany were used and centiles using the LMS-method were developed. Results: Centile tables for arm and leg length of men and women are presented in the results. The variability is small due to a homogeneous distribution of the measurements. A test with randomly chosen patient data shows that women under 171 cm stature and men under 180 cm stature can be assessed correctly. A severe shortening of limbs can be detected with this method.

Assessment of Congenital Vascular and Organ Anomalies in Subjects With Thalidomide Embryopathy Using Non-Contrast Magnetic Resonance Angiography.

BACKGROUND: To determine the type and frequency of vascular and organ malformations in adults with thalidomide embryopathy (TE) using non-contrast magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) and to assess the effect of the observed malformations on renal function. Methods and Results: The institutional ethics committee approved this prospective study and written informed consent was given by all 78 subjects (50 females) with TE (mean age: 55±1.1 years), who were examined by non-contrast MRA at 3T. ECG-triggered balanced turbo field echo images of the chest, abdomen and pelvis were obtained in coronal and sagittal orientations. Two observers assessed the frequency of vascular and organ malformations. Serum creatinine and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) were obtained to assess renal function. In 58 subjects, 99 vascular anomalies were observed, including 68 arterial (69%) and 31 venous anomalies (31%); 15 patients had 16 abdominal organ malformations including 12 kidney anomalies and 4 cases of gallbladder agenesis. Most vascular anomalies affected the renal vessels (n=66, 67%) or supraaortic arteries (n=28, 28%). Serum creatinine and eGFR revealed normal renal function in all subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Vascular and organ anomalies occurred in a high number of subjects with TE without evidence of renal dysfunction. Information about the presence of malformations may be important for future surgical interventions in subjects with TE.