Reply to Seller and Bobrow

✍ Scribed by Verp, Marion S.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1985
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 54 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0148-7299
• DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.1320210426

✦ Synopsis

Letter to the Editor: Reply to Seller and Bobrow

To the Editor:

Seller and Bobrow are correct regarding the timing of testicular descent in the fetus. However, hydroceles develop not from the testicle, but from the vaginal process which evaginates into the scrotal swelling by the middle of the third month of gestation [Langman, 19811. Whether in utero distention of the vaginal process might occur as a precursor to hydrocele, perhaps leading to the abnormal finding we cited remains unknown. On the other hand, the presence of hydrocele in this case may just have been fortuitous.

In any case, the point of our report was that occasionally one will find an elevated level of amniotic fluid alphafetoprotein and the presence of acetylcholinesterase, in the absence of a significant anomaly. Such findings lend significance to efforts to distinguish "true" from "false" positive acetylcholinesterase, either by quantitation [Goldfine et al, 19831 or by immunoassay [Brock et al, 19851.