ion or metacognition; specific deficits in mathematical skills; or problems in memory, attention, or judgment Table 2 -Diagnostic Criteria for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and Alcohol-Related Effects Alcohol-Related Effects Clinical Conditions in which there is a history of maternal alcohol exposure, and where clinical or animal research has linked maternal alcohol ingestion to an observed outc...

Background Approximately 6.3 million live births and fetal deaths occurred during the ascertainment period in the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program registry. American-Indian and non-Hispanic white women delivered 40,268 and 2,044,118 births, respectively. While much information has been published about non-Hispanic white infants, little is known regarding the risks of birth defects am...

James Graves Wilson's six principles of teratology [4], published in 1959, guide research on teratogenic agents and their effects on developing organisms. Wilson's six principles were inspired by Gabriel Madeleine Camille Dareste's five principles of experimental teratology [4] published in 1877. Teratology is the study of birth defects [5], and a teratogen is something that either induces or a...

Increased fetal nuchal translucency thickness at 10-14 weeks of gestation is a common phenotypic expression of fetal chromosomal defects, structural abnormalities and genetic syndromes. This study reports on the prevalence of structural abnormalities and genetic syndromes in 4116 chromosomally normal pregnancies with increased fetal nuchal translucency thickness and reviews the relevant literat...

Considerable advances in ultrasound technology and close collaboration between the specialties of paediatric cardiology and fetal medicine have resulted in the increasing ability to diagnose congenital heart disease before birth over the last two decades. Fetal cardiology diVers from paediatric cardiology not only in the spectrum of diseases seen, but also in the assessment of function because ...

OBJECTIVES We sought to investigate the pattern of recurrence of congenital heart disease (CHD) where there is one or more affected first-degree relative. BACKGROUND There are little data on patterns of recurrence of different types of CHD. Analysis of a fetal series allows a high ascertainment of affected cases. METHODS We performed an analysis of referrals for detailed fetal echocardiogra...

Epilepsy is a common disorder and exposure to antiepileptic drugs during pregnancy increases the risk of teratogenicity. Older AEDs such as valproate and phenobarbital are associated with a higher risk of major malformations in the fetus than newer AEDs like lamotrigine and levetiracetam. Exposure to valproic acid during first trimester can result in fetal valproate syndrome (FVS), comprising t...

Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the sensitivity and specificity of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of fetal neural tube defects in cases of polyhydramnios. Study Design: Descriptive type of study. Place and duration of study: It was conducted in Radiology department of Mother and Child Hospital (MCH) in collaboration with gynaecology department of Mother and Child hospit...

In the Prenatal Diagnosis special issue of July 2010, a good prediction was made by the author (Dennis Lo, 2010) on non-invasive methods of diagnosis of fetal anomalies. Non-invasive prenatal diagnoses are useful in the detection of fetal genetic abnormalities, aneuploidies and high-risk pregnancy. Fetal DNA analysis in maternal plasma using single molecule analysis method, no doubt, will defin...

The aim of this study was to determine the outcome of chromosomally normal livebirths with increased fetal nuchal translucency at 10-14 weeks' gestation. Clinical follow up of 89 chromosomally normal livebirths that in fetal life had a minimum nuchal translucency thickness of 3.5 mm and a comparison group of 302 infants whose fetal nuchal translucency thickness at 10-14 weeks of gestation was l...