June 2005 | Volume 2 | Issue 6 | e195 | e198 As mothers get older and assisted conception becomes more common in developed countries, the incidence of multiple births—primarily of nonidentical siblings, but also of identical ones—has dramatically increased. Multiple pregnancies are high-risk pregnancies, with preterm delivery and monochorionicity (shared placenta) the major problems. Consequent...

Monochorionic twins are usually monozygotic and thus usually have the same sex. A case of monochorionic diamniotic twins following IVF/ICSI and laser treatment of the zona pellucida ("assisted hatching") is presented in which partial embryo amalgamation appears to have occurred. Discordant sex between the twins was suspected on detailed antenatal ultrasound at 13 + 3 weeks gestation and was con...

Twin pregnancies are at increased risk of complications and adverse outcome compared to singletons. A significant contribution to higher morbidity and mortality seen in monochorionic twins is made by cardiac complications. Abnormal cardiac development in monochorionic pregnancies can be divided into primary structural cardiac lesions (structural cardiac anomalies unrelated to the existence of T...

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to determine the association of crown-rump length (CRL) discrepancy in monochorionic and dichorionic twins with subsequent pregnancy outcomes. METHOD A retrospective analytical study was performed among 660 twin pregnancies over 12 years in one fetal medicine tertiary referral center in the United Kingdom. A literature search was performed to identif...

Fetal growth restriction in singletons has been shown to enhance fetal lung maturation and reduce the risk of respiratory distress syndrome due to increased endogenous steroid production. However, data on lung maturation in growth-discordant monochorionic (thus, identical) twins are lacking. Our objective was to compare the risk of severe neonatal morbidity between the larger and the smaller tw...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate Doppler flow velocity changes in cerebral vessels of monochorionic twins with twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). METHODS Repeated Doppler umbilical and cerebral blood flow studies were performed in 7 twin pairs with TTTS. Eight monochorionic twin pairs and 11 dichorionic twin pairs served as control groups. The following Doppler paramete...

BACKGROUND We examined the perinatal outcomes in cases of at least one fetal demise in monochorionic and diamniotic twin pregnancies. METHODS We reviewed the obstetric records of all Japanese twin pregnancies managed beyond 9 weeks' gestation at Japanese Red Cross Katsushika Maternity Hospital between 2008 and 2014. RESULTS The incidence in the monochorionic twin pregnancies was significant...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prospective risk of stillbirth, perinatal death and neonatal morbidities in twins. METHODS This retrospective cohort study was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, and comprised cases of twin pregnancies from January 2001 to December 2012. . Cases of both monochorionic diamniotic and dichorionic diamniotic twin pregnancies were included. SPSS 19 w...

The incidence of multiple pregnancy has increased by 1.7 times from 1980-1994. Twenty-five percent of all twins are monochorionic diamnionic. The perinatal mortality of monochorionic twins is five times greater than that found in dichorionic twins and the morbidity is eight times greater. The increase in morbidity is due to prematurity, cerebral lesions and congenital malformations. One of the ...

Twin anemia-polycythemia sequence (TAPS) is characterized by a wide discrepancy of hemoglobin between two monochorionic fetuses without sign of twin oligo-polyhydramnios sequence. A primiparous woman with monochorionic diamniotic twin transferred for preterm labor. Ultrasonographic evaluation at 32+3 weeks of gestation revealed increased middle cerebral artery-peak systolic velocity (77.4 cm/se...