Sonographic features of lethal multiple pterygium syndrome at 14 weeks

Lethal multiple pterygium syndrome is a rare inherited disorder. Previous reports suggest that the diagnosis may be based on prenatal sonographic demonstration of severe limb flexion, absence of fetal motion, and a large cystic hygroma in the second and third trimesters. We present the sonographic features and postmortem features of a fetus with lethal multiple pterygium syndrome at 13 weeks of gestation, which shows that the condition can possibly be diagnosed in the first trimester of pregnancy. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thermocoagulation of fetal sacrococcygeal teratoma

Fetal sacrococcygeal teratoma can lead to a high output cardiac failure resulting in hydrops fetalis. One of the prenatal therapeutic options is to occlude the feeding vessels by radiofrequency ablation. We present a case of fetal sacrococcygeal teratoma diagnosed at 13 weeks of gestation. The tumour increased in size more than 100-fold over 5 weeks causing polyhydramnios and cardiac and placental enlargement. Thermocoagulation was performed at 18 weeks' gestation by passing an insulated electric wire through an 18-gauge needle placed close to the feeding vessels of the tumour at its neck. Blood supply to the tumour was successfully reduced. However, fetal death was diagnosed 2 days after the procedure. We speculate that it may be safer to limit the extent of coagulation in one attempt but to repeat the procedure at a later stage when necessary. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Embryonic and fetal globins are expressed in adult erythroid progenitor cells and in erythroid cell cultures

The understanding of human hemoglobin ontogeny during development is of biological and clinical importance. Molecular and immunocytological techniques were used to study the expression of embryonic zeta (ζ), epsilon (ε), and fetal gamma (γ) globin genes in newborn cord blood, peripheral blood from men, pregnant and non-pregnant women, and in vitro mononuclear cell cultures. We have shown that embryonic and fetal globin mRNA and peptides are expressed in cultured erythroid cells and in circulating blood cells from newborns, adult non-pregnant women and from men. The findings suggest that during erythroid cell differentiation in newborns and adults, there is a transient recapitulation of sequential globin chain expression as found during embryonic and fetal development. Furthermore, these findings underscore the need for caution in using embryonic and fetal globin chains as markers to identify erythroid cells of fetal origin in maternal circulation for prenatal diagnosis. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of fetal gender on nuchal translucency at 10–14 weeks of gestation

Recent data have suggested that fetal nuchal translucency (NT) is affected by fetal gender. We investigated the size of this effect in 12 189 unselected pregnancies with known normal outcomes that had undergone NT measurements between 10 and 14 weeks of gestation. NT increased with gestation and was converted to multiples of the median (MoM) for the gestational day. The median NT MoM (95% CI) for female fetuses was 0.98 (0.97–0.99). This was significantly lower than that of the male fetuses (1.03; range1.02–1.04) (p<0.0005; Wilcoxon rank-sum test). The gender difference was not observed at 10 weeks but was observed from 11 weeks onwards. There is no obvious explanation for the above findings. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of resource subsidies on cave invertebrates: results from an ecosystem-level manipulation experiment

Spatial resource subsidies can greatly affect the composition and dynamics of recipient communities. Caves are especially tractable for studying spatial subsidies because primary productivity is absent. Here, we performed an ecosystem-level manipulation experiment to test the direct influence of detrital subsidies on community structure in terrestrial cave ecosystems. After performing baseline censuses of invertebrates, we removed all organic material from 12 caves and constructed exclusion boxes to prevent natural resource inputs. Next, we stocked each cave with standardized quantities of two major natural subsidies to caves: leaves (leaf packs) and carcasses (commercially supplied rodents), and measured the invertebrate colonization and utilization of these resources for 23 months. Over the course of the experiment, 102 morphospecies were observed. Diplopods and collembolans were most abundant on leaf packs, and dipteran larvae and collembolans were most abundant on the rats. On average, caves receiving either treatment did not differ in species richness, but abundance was significantly higher in rat caves over both the duration of the experiment and the temporal "life" of the individual resources, which were restocked upon exhaustion. Post-manipulation invertebrate communities differed predictably depending on the type of subsidy introduced. Over the course of the experiment, caves that received the same subsidy clustered together based on community composition. In addition, the invertebrate community utilizing the resource changed over the duration of the two-year experiment, and evidence of succession (i.e., directional change) was observed. Results from this study demonstrate how allochthonous resources can drive the community dynamics of terrestrial invertebrates in cave ecosystems and highlight the need for consideration of the surface environment when managing and protecting these unique habitats.