Received October 29, 2006, from the Fetal Medicine Center (W.S., I.L.), Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Cytogenetics Laboratory (C.B.), Clinica Las Condes, Santiago, Chile. Manuscript accepted for publication November 2, 2006. We thank Filiberto Guerra, MD, for performing the postmortem examination and Medison Co, Ltd (Seoul, Korea) for an equipment loan. This work was supported by Sociedad Profesional de Medicina Fetal “Fetalmed” Limitada, Chile. Address correspondence to Waldo Sepulveda, MD, Fetal Medicine Center, Clinica Las Condes, Casilla 208, Santiago 20, Chile. E-mail: fetalmed@yahoo.com Abbreviations 3D, 3-dimensional oloprosencephaly is a rare intracranial abnormality arising from failure of the prosencephalon to cleave during early embryonic life, which results in different degrees of lateral ventricular fusion and facial defects.1 This condition is classified according to brain structures into lobar, semilobar, and alobar, the latter being the most severe form.1 In this report, we describe one of the earliest prenatally diagnosed cases of holoprosencephaly, in which 3-dimensional (3D) imaging was used to assist in the diagnosis. A 27-year-old woman, gravida 4, para 2, spontaneous aborta 1, was referred at the menstrual age of 9 weeks 6 days for sonographic evaluation because of a suspected fetal brain anomaly detected at the dating scan. Her medical and obstetric histories were unremarkable, and the current pregnancy was otherwise uncomplicated. Transvaginal sonographic evaluation at referral revealed a live singleton fetus with a crown-rump length of 34 mm and a large anechoic area behind the forehead (Figure 1). With the assistance of 3D eXtended Imaging technology (Accuvix XQ; Medison Co, Ltd, Seoul, Korea), including Multislice View and Volume CT, multiple sections of the fetal brain were obtained, which helped in selecting the best plane to show the single ventricular cavity and fused thalami (Figure 2). A follow-up scan 1 week later revealed a 45-mm live fetus with alobar holoprosencephaly, midfacial hypoplasia, small orbits, a suspected small omphalocele, and an increased nuchal translucency thickness of 5.6 mm (Figure 3). The placenta appearance was normal. Trophoblast culture obtained from chorionic villus sampling revealed a 69,XXY karyotype. The patient miscarried at 13 weeks. Pathologic examination of the fetus and placenta confirmed the prenatal diagnosis (Figure 4).
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