Sonographic recognition of lissencephaly (agyria).

Lissencephaly ("smooth brain") or agyria is a rare congenital malformation resulting from an arrest of the development of the human brain during the third to fourth month of gestation [1]. Before this stage of fetal cerebral development, the absence of gyri is normal [2]. The radiologic findings on plain skull radiography, pneumoencephalography, cerebral arteriography, and , more recently, cranial computed tomography, have been well documented [1, 3-5] . The real-time cranial sonographic findings in an infant with lissencephaly are presented. These have not been described previously, but are characteristic and may prove to be diagnostic.