[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.

Functional anatomy of the liver of the human fetus: applications to ultrasonography.

The anatomy of the liver of the human fetus was established on the basis of cadaveric techniques, but its study has been transformed by obstetric ultrasonography. This work is based on a personal study of the normal morphology of the liver of the human fetus and on a review of the current literature, particularly with regards to vascularization. The liver is the digestive organ whose rudiments appear earliest and which develops most rapidly.