1/4. New variant of acro-renal field defect.We describe two patients with a new variant of acro-renal field defect. The first was a full-term, small-for-gestational-age female infant who showed preaxial polydactyly of the right hand and horseshoe kidney on abdominal ultrasonographic examination. In addition, there was a single umbilical artery and some mild facial errors of morphogenesis. The second patient, a full-term male infant, had horseshoe kidney and left hand ectrodactyly. Various renal abnormalities have been described in the literature, but there are no reports on horseshoe kidney as part of acro-renal field defect. We suggest that acro-renal field defect should not be regarded as a definitive diagnosis, but only as a starting point for the search for various conditions.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = gestation (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/4. Increased nuchal translucency and split-hand/foot malformation in a fetus with an interstitial deletion of chromosome 2q that removes the SHFM5 locus.OBJECTIVES: To describe and discuss the clinical, cytogenetic and molecular findings in a fetus with the first prenatally detected interstitial deletion of chromosome 2q. CASE REPORT: A fetus with increased nuchal translucency on routine ultrasound examination at 13 weeks' gestation was found to have severe upper-limb abnormalities on follow-up ultrasound examination at 16 weeks. The pregnancy was terminated, and the autopsy revealed monodactyly of the right upper limb, oligodactyly of the left upper limb and bilateral split foot, as well as atrial and ventricular septal defects and mild facial dysmorphism. RESULTS: Cytogenetic studies and haplotype analysis of the fetus and both parents showed that the fetus carried a de novo deletion encompassing a region of about 30 Mb on the paternal chromosome 2q (karyotype 46,XX,del(2)(q24.2-q32.2)). CONCLUSION: This is the first instance of increased nuchal translucency associated with a chromosome 2q deletion. Moreover, the striking malformations affecting all four of the fetus' limbs support previous suggestions that a novel locus for split-hand/foot malformation (SHFM5) lies on chromosome 2q31.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1.2661771268611keywords = gestation, pregnancy (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/4. Biliary lithiasis in early pregnancy and abnormal development of facial and distal limb bones (Binder syndrome): a possible role for vitamin k deficiency.BACKGROUND: Binder syndrome is a maxillonasal dysostosis characterized by midface and nasal hypoplasia, sometimes associated with short terminal phalanges of fingers and toes and transient radiological features of chondrodysplasia punctata. warfarin- or phenytoin-induced vitamin k deficiency during early pregnancy is a well-established etiology for this syndrome, which occurs nevertheless sporadically in most cases. CASE(S): We describe here the first case, to our knowledge, of Binder syndrome in a child whose mother presented with biliary lithiasis in early pregnancy. The mother proved to have a decrease in clotting factors II, VII, and X, and in prothrombin time, at 11 weeks of gestation, which was highly suggestive of vitamin k deficiency. CONCLUSIONS: The biliary lithiasis-induced vitamin k deficiency in early pregnancy is likely to have resulted in Binder syndrome. This observation should prompt physicians to carefully check for vitamin k deficiency in pregnant women presenting with biliary lithiasis, in order to prevent Binder syndrome in the fetus by providing intravenous vitamin K supplementation as soon as possible. Finally, reassuring genetic counseling regarding the genetic risk for future pregnancies is to be provided to the parents.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 2.8632398880279keywords = gestation, pregnancy (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/4. Skeletal dysplasias with gracile bones: three new cases, including two offspring of a mother with a dwarfing condition.We describe 3 new cases of a rare form of dwarfism (so-called "lethal skeletal dysplasia with gracile bones" or "osteocraniostenosis"), a condition characterized by thin, brittle bones and death in late gestation or early neonatal life. The first was a 37-week gestation female who died at delivery. She had facial anomalies and positional abnormalities of the hands and feet. The others were male stillborn sibs, who died in utero in the third trimester. Their mother had an undiagnosed dwarfing condition associated with body asymmetry, microcephaly, and unusual facial appearance. Both fetuses were documented by ultrasound to have short limbs and probable long bone fractures late in the second trimester. At autopsy, one fetus had no spleen and the other a hypoplastic spleen. Radiographically, all three cases had very thin diaphyses, diaphyseal fractures, and thin ribs and clavicles. In contrast to the first case who had a normally mineralized calvaria, the sibs had grossly deficient calvarial mineralization. Microscopically, endochondral ossification was qualitatively normal but quantitatively deficient in all three cases. The long bones, especially those of the sibs, lacked the well-defined outer cortex in the mid-shaft normally seen by the third trimester. This failure of organization into the cortex and medulla suggests a failure of bone remodelling. Given the variable presentation in these cases, "lethal skeletal dysplasia with gracile bones" is probably a heterogeneous disorder. The recurrence in one family suggests that the mother has somatic/germline mosaicism of a lethal gene, expressed clinically as growth failure and asymmetry.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 2keywords = gestation (Clic here for more details about this article) |