28 FARRERAS
and multi-institutional cooperative and collaborative studies and also to
serve as the central, integrative biostatistical laboratory that would collect,
correlate, and evaluate the data obtained by such studies and institutions.^44
Such a program was based on the success of earlier cooperative studies,
such as the ones on retrolental fibroplasias that indicated a correlation
between the administration of oxygen and the duration of the ad
ministration and blindness; kernicterus, identifying Rh factor blood
incompatibilities that required multiple exchange blood transfusions;
and on asparagines, found to treat successfully certain types of epilepsy.^45
The branch’s most important project was the National Collaborative
Perinatal Project, involving over a dozen institutions, 150 scientists and
physicians, 50,000 pregnancies, and the resulting children, who were
followed up to the age of seven. This extramural and intramural joint
endeavor was an attempt to collect data that would improve the clas
sification, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of neurological diseases,
including cerebral palsy, mental retardation, epilepsy, speech defects,
and reading and learning disabilities.^46
The NINDB’s Field Station of Perinatal Physiology in San Juan,
Puerto Rico, was involved in a parallel study of the perinatal factors lead
ing to cerebral palsy and mental retardation in free-ranging pregnant
and infant macaque monkeys.^47
The branch also oversaw other large scale cooperative projects on
cerebrovascular diseases, specifically, intercranial aneurysms and acute
subarachnoid hemorrhages (1,000 cases in 22 institutions); on the
effectiveness of anticoagulants in the treatment of cerebrovascular dis
eases (600 cases in seven institutions); and on developing accurate screen
ing techniques for the early diagnosis of glaucoma (four institutions).^48
The Biometrics Branch was established in January 1957 to serve as
“a focal statistical coordinating agency for the institute’s collaborative
field investigations and a consulting service for its intramural projects.”^49
The Epidemiology Branch, closely related to the Biometrics Branch,
collected and evaluated epidemiological data on selected neurological
and sensory disorders.^50
The Intramural Research Program consisted of a basic research and a
clinical investigations program. The basic research program was a joint
program with the NIMH basic research program and focused on the