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Isolated Echogenic Cardiac Focus: Assessing Association with Trisomy 21 by Combining Results from a Prenatal Center with a Bayesian Meta-Analysis 

Elisabeth Wrede, Alexander Johannes Knippel, Pablo Emilio Verde, Ruediger Hammer, Peter Kozlowski

DOI: 10.1055/a-1118-3974

Most expectant parents want to know as early as possible whether their unborn child will be born healthy or with a structural malformation. Particularly with regard to chromosomal disorders, couples wish to have early diagnostic clarification in order to consider adjustments needed in the event of giving birth to a child with abnormalities or to terminate the pregnancy. Trisomy 21 is the most common chromosomal abnormality in liveborn infants with an incidence of 1/600 of 1/600 1/800 in the general population. First Trimester Screening (FTS) at 11 + 0–13 + 6 weeks of pregnancy offers an early assessment of the risk for aneuploidies. Nuchal translucency and other ultrasound parameters in combination with maternal age and biochemical parameters, like free beta HCG and PAPP-A, can be used to estimate an individualized risk for the three most common chromosomal disorders (trisomy 21, 13 and 18) at an early stage.

Fig. 2 Zoom of the results of the meta-analysis: Data and predictive posterior contours.

Prenatal Diagnosis of Teratoma in a Torqued Undescended Testis Masked as Unclear Intra-Abdominal Mass 

Adeline Walter, Alexander C Engels, Andreas Heydweiller, Annegret Geipel, Ulrich Gembruch

DOI: 10.1055/a-1088-3569

Constantly improving ultrasound technologies facilitate prenatal detection of various fetal diseases, including low-incidence disorders that are typically diagnosed postnatally, such as testicular teratoma. These can appear as an unclear cystic intra-abdominal structure, caused by an undescended torqued testis. In the case of such uncertain cystic intra-abdominal lesions, a cryptorchidism could lead the investigator to narrow the possibilities to the urogenital tract.

Herein, we report the second case of a prenatally detected cystic-solid lesion being a testicular teratoma by a torqued undescended testis and the seventh case of a prenatally seen testicular teratoma. In late gestation, a structured evaluation of the testes would be beneficial to detect such malformations.

Fig. 1 Prenatal ultrasound images demonstrating teratoma in a torqued undescended testis at 30 + 3 a and 34 + 5 weeks of gestation (b and c, respectively). The filled arrow indicates the cystic part and the dotted arrow the solid part of the torqued testis. The continuous arrow points to the fetal urinary bladder a. The intraabdominal tumor measures a total size of 28.9 × 21.7 mm, and the solid part measures a total size of 13.2 × 8.5 mm b, c.

Gastric Emptying of Low- and High-Caloric Liquid Meals Measured Using Ultrasonography in Healthy Volunteers 

Tarek Mazzawi, Emily Bartsch, Sara Benammi, Rosa Maria Carrasco Ferro, Ekaterina Nikitina, Nancy Nimer, Lara Jiménez Ortega, Charles Perrotte, Joäo Vitor Pithon, Safira Rosalina, Alexis Sharp, Reza Stevano, Jan Gunnar Hatlebakk, Trygve Hausken

DOI: 10.1055/a-0783-2170

From 2015 to 2017, 32 healthy volunteers aged 19 to 35, with a median age of 22, were recruited to participate in the study at the Division of Gastroenterology, Haukeland University hospital, Bergen, Norway. A senior gastroenterologist (T.H.) performed an ultrasound scan of the abdomen and pelvic regions of each participant to rule out the presence of any abnormalities. The researchers completing the ultrasound were medical students that did not have extensive previous experience with ultrasound that were supervised by a gastroenterologist (T.M and T.H) to limit the inter-examiner variability, answer any questions and to confirm the location of the antrum.

Fig. 1 Representative ultrasonography image (this image was taken 10 min after a low-caloric liquid meal). Landmarks: A: liver, B: superior mesenteric vein, C: gastric antrum and D: aorta.

Publication History

Article published online:
08 June 2020