GREGG'S report1 in 1941 stimulated interest in the etiological relationship of environmental factors in early pregnancy to congenital defects in the child. His observations relating maternal rubella to congenital cataract and congenital heart disease were supported by the more extensive study of Swan and his associates,2 which also revealed that deaf-mutism and microcephaly were related to maternal rubella. Later Evans3 reported delayed eruption of teeth as another manifestation of the rubella syndrome.
The frequent implication that patent ductus arteriosus and septal defects are related to maternal rubella4 is not supported by any conclusive data in existing literature. Among 442 reported cases of congenital heart disease following maternal rubella,5 it was possible to find only 77 in which a specific heart lesion was noted.6
(Footnotes continued on next page) The specific lesions reported7 were as follows: 42 patent ductus arteriosus, of which 17 were