Ultrasound appearance of a malignant fetal brain tumor

✍ Scribed by Thomas H. Shawker; Richard M. Schwartz

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1983
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 232 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0091-2751
• DOI: 10.1002/jcu.1870110109

✦ Synopsis

A wide range of fetal central nervous system abnormalities can now be recognized prenatally by ultrasound B-mode scanning, including anencephaly, microcephaly, hydrocephaly, meningocele, meningoencephalocele, intracranial teratoma, and posterior fossa This report documents the ultrasonic appearance of a fetus with a malignant congenital brain tumor.

CASE REPORT

A 35-yr-old woman, gravida 2, para 1, presented t o the obstetrical clinic with a 12-wk history of amenorrhea. Her pregnancy progressed uneventfully until about the 25th week of gestation, when the uterus was noted to be larger than expected. An ultrasound examination (Figs 1, 2) performed a t that time revealed a single fetus in a vertex presentation. The fetus was lying posteriorly in the uterine cavity, separated from the anteriorly implanted placenta by a large amount of amniotic fluid. The fetal body appeared normal. Fetal heart activity was present. On longitudinal and transverse sectoring through the fetal head, a large cystic space was seen within the cranium. The cystic area was in the midline near the vertex of the skull. This unilocular cystic area was triangular, measured 1 cm in diameter in the frontal region, and widened to 2 cm in diameter near the occiput. Normal fetal ventricles were not visible. The biparietal diameter, obtained with some difficulty because of the lack of internal landmarks, was conservatively estimated at 8 cm, which corresponded to a menstrual age of 32.7 wk. The fetal thorax measured 6.5 cm in diameter. The large amount of amniotic fluid indicated that the patient also had polyhydramnios.