Diagnosis of fetal cortical abnormalities by new reference charts for assessment of sylvian fissure biometry.

Objective: To develop novel fetal reference ranges for the characterization of the normal appearance of the Sylvian fissures (SF) along gestation and to apply them to fetuses with cortical abnormalities affecting the SF.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we used three-dimensional sonographic multiplanar reformatting (3D-MPR) to examine the fetal SF. Normal development was assessed in the second and third trimesters.

Prenatal diagnosis of rhombencephalosynapsis: neuroimaging features and severity of vermian anomaly.

Objectives: To describe the prenatal neuroimaging spectrum of rhombencephalosynapsis (RES) and criteria for its classification according to the severity of vermian anomaly.

Methods: In this multicenter retrospective study of fetuses with RES between 2002 and 2020, the medical records and brain ultrasound and magnetic resonance images were evaluated comprehensively to determine the severity of the vermian anomaly and the presence of associated brain findings. RES was classified, according to the pattern of vermian agenesis and the extent of the fusion of the hemispheres, as complete RES (complete absence of the vermis) or partial RES (further classified according to the part of the vermis that was missing and, consequently, the region of hemispheric fusion, as anterior, posterior, severe or mixed RES).

Periventricular pseudocysts of noninfectious origin: Prenatal associated findings and prognostic factors.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to establish prognostic factors in fetuses diagnosed with periventricular pseudocysts (PVPCs) without known congenital infection, between 28 and 37 weeks of gestation.

Methods: This retrospective study included cases of fetal PVPC from 2008 to 2018. PVPCs were classified according to location, number, extension, morphology, and size.

Walker-Warburg syndrome and tectocerebellar dysraphia: A novel association caused by a homozygous DAG1 mutation.

Objectives: To elaborate the imaging phenotype associated with a homozygous c.743C > del frameshift mutation in DAG1 leading to complete absence of both α- and β-dystroglycan previously reported in a consanguineous Israeli-Arab family.

Methods: We analyzed prenatal and postnatal imaging data of patients from a consanguineous Israeli-Arab kindred harboring the DAG1 mutation.

Unique Imaging Features Enabling the Prenatal Diagnosis of Developmental Venous Anomalies: A Persistent Echogenic Brain Lesion Drained by a Collecting Vein in Contrast with Normal Brain Parenchyma on MRI.

Objective: To describe the prenatal imaging features enabling diagnosis of developmental venous anomalies (DVA).

Methods: Four fetuses with unexplained persistent echogenic parenchymal brain lesions were studied. The evaluation included dedicated neurosonography, fetal MRI, serology for intrauterine infection, screening for coagulation abnormalities, and chromosomal microarray.

Application of a novel prenatal vertical cranial biometric measurement can improve accuracy of microcephaly diagnosis in utero.

Objective: To construct a reference range for a new vertical measurement of the fetal head and to assess whether its combination with fetal head circumference (HC) can prevent the misdiagnosis of microcephaly in fetuses with an acrocephalic-like head deformation.

Methods: A new vertical cranial biometric measurement was defined: the foramen magnum-to-cranium distance (FCD), measured between the foramen magnum and the upper inner cranial border along the posterior wall of the brainstem. The measurement was performed in a precise mid-sagittal plane using a three-dimensional multiplanar display of a sagittally acquired sonographic volume of the fetal head.

Prediction of microcephaly at birth using three reference ranges for fetal head circumference: can we improve prenatal diagnosis?

Objective: To evaluate the prediction of microcephaly at birth (micB) using established and two new reference ranges for fetal head circumference (HC) and to assess whether integrating additional parameters can improve prediction.

Methods: Microcephaly in utero was defined as a fetal HC 3SD below the mean for gestational age according to Jeanty et al.'s reference range.

Congenital periventricular pseudocysts: prenatal sonographic appearance and clinical implications.

Objective: Periventricular pseudocysts (PVPC) are diagnosed in approximately 1% of premature newborns that undergo brain sonography during the first 24 h of life. These pseudocysts are thought to develop antenatally due to germinal matrix hemorrhage, but have not been described until now in prenatal ultrasound studies. The aim of this study was to report the identification, differential diagnosis, and prognosis of PVPC detected by prenatal ultrasound examination.

Prediction of pregnancy-induced hypertension by a combination of rollover test and Doppler flow velocity measurement.

Following a rollover test performed in 306 nulliparous women in the 28th gestational week, Doppler flow velocity studies were conducted in all 34 women with positive rollover findings and in 67 women selected at random from those with negative findings. The mean systolic diastolic ratios in both the uterine and the umbilical arteries were significantly higher in women with positive rollover findings than in the control group. A review of the patients' medical records after delivery, indicated that this combined two-stage screening approach--a rollover test followed by a Doppler flow study--improved the predictive value and the sensitivity of the screening procedure from 35% and 39% respectively for the rollover test alone, to 56% and 50% with no decline in specificity.

The use of aspirin to prevent pregnancy-induced hypertension and lower the ratio of thromboxane A2 to prostacyclin in relatively high risk pregnancies.

We carried out a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to investigate the capacity of aspirin to prevent pregnancy-induced hypertension and to alter prostaglandin metabolism. A total of 791 pregnant women with various risk factors for pre-eclamptic toxemia were screened with use of the rollover test (a comparison of blood pressure before and after the woman rolls from her left side to her back) during week 28 or 29 of gestation. Of 69 women with abnormal results (an increase in blood pressure during the rollover test), 65 entered the study and were treated with a daily dose of either aspirin (100 mg; 34 women) or placebo (31 women) during the third trimester of pregnancy.

Pyosalpinx subsequent to tubal ligation.

A case of salpingitis with pyosalpinx subsequent to tubal ligation is described. The procedure was performed at the time of cesarean section 7 years earlier. The pyosalpinx included the distal portion of the ligated tube, with no evidence of infection in the proximal segment.

Pathological features and prenatal diagnosis in the newly recognised limb/pelvis-hypoplasia/aplasia syndrome.

A second family with the autosomal recessive disorder now referred to as the limb/pelvis-hypoplasia/aplasia syndrome is reported. It is speculated that the gene for this rare skeletal dysplasia may be confined to the Middle East gene pool. The disorder has been shown to be diagnosable prenatally in a pregnancy at risk by using ultrasonography.

Fractional gradients along the outflow tract of the right ventricle in tetralogy of Fallot: anatomic and hemodynamic correlative study.

In 16 patients undergoing surgical correction of tetralogy of Fallot, attempts were made to determine where, in the outflow tract, the most critical preoperative obstruction was located. In the open chest, pressures were taken in the right ventricle, proximal conus, distal conus, and pulmonary artery. Pressure gradients between these levels were indicative of stenosis at the infundibular ostium (Ost.