The Pubic Diastasis Measurement, a Key Element for the Diagnosis, Management, and Prognosis of the Bladder Exstrophy.

Objective: To demonstrate the feasibility of measuring the fetal pubic diastasis (PD) distance on antenatal ultrasound in normal fetuses and to compare it to fetuses with bladder exstrophy.

Methods: Firstly, a prospective multicentric study was conducted to determine the feasibility of the PD ultrasound measurement during the second half of pregnancy. Secondly, data from a single center were used to develop a nomogram for PD values in normal fetuses.

Formative assessment based on an audit and feedback improves nuchal translucency ultrasound image quality.

Objectives: The purpose of this work was to study the impact of an audit and feedback on the quality of routine first-trimester nuchal transparency ultrasound images.

Methods: Eighty-eight sonographers were each sent 2 different series of 30 consecutive nuchal translucency images at a mean interval of 3 months to a dedicated, protected server for remote double-blind independent analysis based on the new Collège Français d'Echographie Foetale/Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique image-scoring method (https://www.cfef.

Semi-automated adjusted measurement of nuchal translucency: feasibility and reproducibility.

Objective: The variability of nuchal translucency thickness (NT) measurements in the first trimester appears to be associated in part with caliper placement. Methods for obtaining semi-automated adjusted measurements (SAAMs) can provide several NT values (maximum, minimum, mean and median) automatically within a manually set frame in the zone of interest. This study sought to assess the feasibility and reproducibility of these SAAM-NTs.

[Tetragametic chimerism: Case report].

We report the third case of spontaneous monochorionic dizygous pregnancy, discovered on foetal sex discordance. Blood group testing on the female twin revealed a hematopoietic chimera. The mechanism of monochorionic dizygous formation could be the fusion of two independent zygotes at a late morula stage.

Ultrasonography of the fetal brainstem: a biometric and anatomical, multioperator, cross-sectional study of 913 fetuses of 21-36 weeks of gestation.

Objectives: To establish the ultrasonographic fetal growth charts of the pons and the vermis/pons ratio on a multioperator basis in low-risk pregnancies and provide a detailed description of the anatomical and ultrasonographic criteria of normal brainstem growth.

Methods: A prospective, multicenter, multioperator, ultrasonographic study was conducted on 913 fetuses aged 21-36 weeks. The anteroposterior diameter of the pons and the greatest vermal height were measured to establish a growth chart, using a mid-sagittal plane with a posterior transfontanellar approach.

Brachytelephalangic chondrodysplasia punctata: prenatal diagnosis and postnatal outcome.

We report the prenatal management of a brachytelephalangic chondrodysplasia punctata (CDPX1) case and how postnatal findings confirmed the diagnosis. The mother was initially referred after ultrasound revealed an abnormal fetal mid-face and punctuation of upper femoral epiphyses. Chondrodysplasia punctata (CP) with Binder anomaly was suspected.

Prenatal diagnosis of achondroplasia: new specific signs.

Background: Achondroplasia is one of the most common forms of short limb dwarfism. It is usually suspected on third trimester routine ultrasound because of very shortened long bones. We have described two new prenatal sonographic signs of achondroplasia visible at the proximal femoral metaphysis.

Quality control of an image-scoring method for nuchal translucency ultrasonography.

Objective: The objective of the study was to describe a new image-scoring method (NISM) for the measurement of nuchal translucency and crown-rump length on ultrasound scans and to establish interreviewer reliability.

Study Design: This NISM was based on 8 criteria on a scale of 4 levels (1-4) established on clearly defined ultrasound reference marks. Ten reviewers assessed the same images of 30 fetuses.

French fetal biometry: reference equations and comparison with other charts.

Objectives: To construct new reference charts and equations for fetal biparietal diameter (BPD), head circumference (HC), abdominal circumference (AC) and femur length (FL), using a large sample of fetuses examined at 15-40 weeks in France, and to compare them with previous references.

Methods: The study data were obtained over a continuous 1-year period from a population of pregnant women undergoing ultrasound examination. Excluded were those with a known abnormal karyotype or congenital malformation, multiple pregnancies, and those with no first-trimester dating based on crown-rump length.

[Role of "subtle" ultrasonographic signs during antenatal screening for trisomy 21 during the second trimester of pregnancy: meta-analysis and CPDPN protocol of the Grenoble University Hospital].

Objective: A meta-analysis about subtle ultrasonographic signs in second trimester of pregnancy.

Materials And Methods: 196 articles dealing with the subject--from 1985 to July 2002--were studied. Data on the 11 reported signs were collected from 92 theoretically and/or statistically valid studies.

Perforated tubular duplication of the transverse colon: a rare cause of meconium peritonitis with prenatal diagnosis.

The transverse colon is an exceptional location of intestinal duplication. Perforated duplications are rarely described in neonates. Meconium peritonitis (MP) can originate from prenatal perforated intestinal duplication.

A submicroscopic unbalanced subtelomeric translocation t(2p;10q) identified by fluorescence in situ hybridization: fetus with increased nuchal translucency and normal standard karyotype with later growth and developmental delay, rhombencephalosynapsis (RES).

Reaching an accurate diagnosis in children with mental retardation associated or not with dysmorphic signs is important to make precise diagnosis of a syndrome and for genetic counseling. A female case with severe growth and development delay, dysmorphic features and feeding disorder is presented. Antenataly, the fetus was observed to have increased nuchal translucency and a slight hypoplastic cerebellum.

[Combined use of nuchal translucency, gestational age and maternal age for evaluation of the risk of trisomy 21].

Purpose: Despite the definition of new screening policies for fetal trisomies, based on nuchal translucency thickness (NT) or maternal serum, the prevalence of trisomy 21 remains high. We propose a strategy based on a combination of maternal age, gestational age and NT, measured at the first trimester ultrasound examination, for the assessment of risk.

Methods: We present, in this paper, a characterisation of the physiological increase of fetal NT between the 10th and the 14th week of gestation, in a preliminary study of 266 echographic examinations.