Welcome to the site from the Latin American Collaborative Study of Congenital Malformations

ECLAMC is a program of clinical and epidemiological investigation of developmental congenital anomalies in Latin American hospital births. This is a research program of risk factors in causing malformations, under case-control methodology. Since more than half of the defects have unknown causes, the main objective and strategy is the PREVENTION BY RESEARCH.

INSTITUTIONAL CHANGES

From the institutional point of view, the ECLAMC program has been located in various centers in Argentina and Brazil, but always as an independent research project, without institutional administrative links. From 1984 In order to expand fundraising, the ion was decentralized, maintaining an office in Brazil (UFRJ: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), and another in Argentina, at the Multidisciplinary Institute of Cell Biology: IMBICE , La Plata (1984-1991), first, and at the Center for Medical Education and Clinical Research: CEMIC, Buenos Aires, since 1992. Since 1987, the headquarters of the coordination were fixed at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro.

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTS

Under a regional perspective, the ECLAMC began operations in 1967 as an investigation limited to the city of Buenos Aires. But despite this, two years later and included hospitals from different cities of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, which led to consider, during the first annual meeting of the program in December 1969, the need for a suitable name, ECLAMC by the plenary. In 1973, ECLAMC extended to seven Latin American countries: Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela in addition to the three already mentioned, and in 1990 all ten South American countries (Bolivia, Colombia, and Paraguay added), plus Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

FUNCTIONAL EVOLUTION

The functional evolution of the ECLAMC program preserves essentially the same original experimental design of 1967. Nevertheless, modifications were introduced, coherent with the accumulated experience by the program itself, as well as the evolution of knowledge in the field.

Since 1967, the ECLAMC program works as clinical and epidemiological investigation of developmental congenital anomalies in Latin American hospital births, being recognized by the World Health Organization as the Collaborating Centre for the Prevention of Congenital Malformations.

RESEARCH PROGRAM

ECLAMC is a research program of risk factors in causing malformations, under case-control methodology. Since more than half of the defects have unknown causes, the main objective and strategy is the PREVENTION BY RESEARCH.

PERMANENT MONITORING

The ECLAMC also acts as surveillance system, systematically observing the fluctuations in the frequencies of the different malformations, and when an alarm for an epidemic is aced, for a given type of malformation, and at a given time and area, it is mobilized to identify the cause of the possible epidemic.

VOLUNTARY COOPERATION

The ECLAMC is a voluntary agreement among professionals dedicated to the study of congenital malformations in Latin American hospitals. They are integrated by a collaborative attitude, agreeing to a body of rules that ensure the operational uniformity needed for the comparability of the data recorded in different hospitals.

NON-INSTITUTIONAL BASE

In being an agreement between people, ECLAMC lacks institutional base and own budget, which in turn assures the

intellectual autonomy and long-term continuity of the program. This voluntary and collaborative nature guarantees the quality of information required for a program of wide coverage and high level of complexity, two hardly compatible features, which ECLAMC combine without compromising one for the other. The basic idea is to operate a program with the quality and complexity of clinical research , feasible in a single hospital, but with a sample size multiplied by many hospitals willing to accept, voluntarily and collaboratively, criteria and definitions within a single operational framework, and to share their data with other fellow programs. The economic needs of the program are covered by research grants, requested for specific programs, and using the installed capacity (salaries , printing , mail, computer , etc.) available in the participant institutions.

PRIMARY PREVENTION

Preventive measures proposed here are simple, effective and economical, adequate for a non-priority health problem.

TERTIARY PREVENTION

The ECLAMC produces a number of guides (folders), targeting the families of newborns affected by some of the most common and disabling anomalies.

PUBLISHED PAPERS

Members of ECLAMC produce research papers that are published in science magazines. You can access the articles through these links:

PubMed (Database: MEDLINE):
click aquí.

Virtual Health Lybrary (VHL) (Databases: MEDLINE, LILACS, Cochrane, PAHO, IBECS):
click aquí.

ATLAS OF BIRTH

- To view on-line when a strong internet connection is available.
Aim to help personnel involved in describing, coding, and study congenital anomalies at ECLAMC network and other registries.

- Download to generate a CD
For those who prefer to arrange it on a CD, for off-line, fast and efficient operation.
Aim to help personnel involved in describing, coding, and study congenital anomalies at ECLAMC network and other registries.

DOCUMENTOS FINALES DE LA RAE

DF-RAE48 - Final

DF-RAE46 - Final

DF-RAE41 - Parte 1

BOLETRIMES

ECLAMC BOLETRIM 2014-I-

ECLAMC BOLETRIM 2014-II-

ECLAMC BOLETRIM III-2014

ECLAMC BOLETRIM I-2015

ECLAMC BOLETRIM II-2015

DATA COLLECTION

Each hospital mounts a cover system according to their realities since it is impossible to dictate a single standard, being the Coordination available to members to provide advice and to answer specific questions.
ECLAMC tasks can be organized into Coverage and Registration.
Coverage or malformed detection depends on the quality of the examination of all births, therefore depending upon the collaboration of all the medical staff of the hospital and especially pediatrician neonatologists.
The Registry should be done by one or a few persons, one of whom shall be the contact with the Coordination, who should be familiar with the rules given in the Operational Manual.

COORDINATION

The coordinating team works at the headquarters of ECLAMC in the Center for Medical Education and Clinical Research: CEMIC in Buenos Aires and in the Osvaldo Cruz Institute LEMC: IOC-FIOCRUZ, and in the Laboratory of Congenital Malformations DG-IB-CCS-UFRJ: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro..

BUENOS AIRES COORDINATOR

Dr. Jorge López Camelo

RIO DE JANEIRO COORDINATOR

Dra. Iêda María Orioli

ECLAMC NETWORK

Hospital Network in Latin American countries that voluntarily performs the registration of infants with malformations. Currently the network consists of 35 hospitals in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela and Colombia.

RED HOSPITALAR ECLAMC-ACTIVA-

Within budgetary limitations, the Coordination ensure the integration of its members through regular newsletters, internal documents, annual meetings, visits to hospitals and an active and continuous correspondence. As an example of the integration effort already performed, the list of the Annual Meetings continuously performed by the ECLAMC is shown.

LINKS

CEMIC – Centro de Educación Médica e Investigaciones Clínicas
http://www.cemic.edu.ar

INaGeMP – Instituto Nacional de Genética Médica populacional
http://www.inagemp.bio.br

International Clearinghouse for Birth Defects
http://www.icbdsr.org

OCD=Osteo-Condro-Displasias o Displasias Esqueléticas= DISESQ
http://ocd.med.br

ATLAS Fotográfico de Anomalías Congénitas del ECLAMC
http://www.atlaseclamc.org