This review is a a series of the authors' studies designed to test the hypothesis that administration of trichloroethylene (TCE), dichloroethylene (DCE), their metabolites, and related compounds are responsible for fetal cardiac teratogenesis when given to pregnant rats during organogenesis. Identification of teratogenic compounds will allow more accurate assessment of environmental contaminant...

Despite the isolation of placental folate receptors 25 y ago and progress in defining the mechanism of folate delivery, considerable gaps remain in the literature for each level of the maternal-placental-fetal unit. Although a critical role of placental folate receptors in maternal-to-fetal folate transport was shown by use of the isolated perfused-placental cotyledon model a decade ago, in viv...

The evaluation of the fetal face is an important part of every ultrasound examination since detailed facial examination can provide many information alerting the examiner about possible associated anomalies. Face and the brain have the same embryonic origin. By using 2 and 3D ultrasound techniques, it is possible to obtain clear images of different fetal face defects. Incorporation of the 4D ul...

Copyright: © 2012 Hornberger LK, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract Fetal echocardiography has evolved considerably over the past 1-2 decades into an exciting field that bridges ma...

Over a two-year period, 3479 pregnant women in the Kings' Lynn Health District were screened for neural tube defects by estimation of maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein. Most pregnancies were scanned by sonar for fetal maturity. Eight women had fetuses with open neural tube defects; four with anencephaly were associated with very high alpha-fetoprotein values. Of the four with open neural tube de...

Hyperglycemia characteristic of diabetes mellitus triggers pathological processes in fetal development of various structures such as the retina, peripheral nerves, renal glomerulus, and arterial and venous beds. Women with diabetes prior to conception have children with birth defects three to fi ve times more frequently than women without diabetes. There is no specifi c pattern of birth defects...

This study aims to identify the policy formulation in Law No. 36 of 2009 on Health regarding abortion for fetal defects and necessary law achieve legal certainty. The research method used was a literature review by analyzing documents relevant issue. analysis showed that limits be performed only before pregnancy reaches 6 weeks, while usually can detected after 16 weeks. causes uncertainty doct...

BACKGROUND There is a growing body of evidence that most of the major cardiac abnormalities can be diagnosed at 14-15 weeks of gestation. We present our experience of early fetal echocardiography. MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a retrospective cohort study of women referred for early fetal echocardiography at 13-16 weeks of gestation at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Sydney Ultrasound for Wo...

Editorial Birth defects – or by according to the World Health Organization's (WHO) term: congenital anomalies – are structural, functional and/or biochemical-molecular defects present at birth whether detected at that time or not (Figure 1). Among different categories of birth defects, congenital abnormalities, i.e. structural-morphological defects represent the largest one. Congenital abnormal...

Background: About 40 thousand newborns are delivered annually with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). It induces serious CNS complications. Methods: In a review of, the word “fetal alcohol syndrome” was searched in PubMed and Google Scholar and the retrieved articles were summarized. Results: Many studies showed that alcohol can cause more defects in fetus than heroin, cocaine and marijuana. The pos...