in utero ultrasonographic diagnosis of an aberrant umbilical vein associated with fetal hepatic hyperechogenicity

Absence of ductus venosus—importance of umbilical venous drainage site

“…A review of the literature of the past 10 years revealed a total of 63 prenatally diagnosed cases with ADV2, 6, 7, 9–22. Combining our series with the cases previously reported, a significant correlation could be demonstrated between extrahepatic umbilical venous drainage, portal vein agenesis and cardiomegaly ( P < 0.05), while the associated anomalies were equally distributed among the different types of umbilical venous drainage.…”

“…Sixty‐three additional cases were retrieved from a review of the English literature2, 6, 7, 9–22. Only cases from the past 10 years were included, as in cases prior to this period descriptions of the fetal anatomy were partly incomplete, rendering a comparison with our cohort difficult.…”

“…Absence of ductus venosus (ADV) in the fetus was reported in the nineteenth century4, but it was not until a decade ago that the first cases were detected in utero using modern ultrasound techniques5–8. Since these four initial reports, 63 additional cases have been reported in the English literature2, 6, 7, 9–22, which helped to define the frequent association with congestive heart failure, aneuploidies and cardiac as well as extracardiac malformations.…”

Absence of the ductus venosus: report of 10 new cases and review of the literature

“…In the last decade, sonography of the fetal venous system in general, and of the ductus venosus in particular, has been an area of intensive research [1][2][3][4][5][6] . It is therefore not surprising that, with the increasing awareness of the sonologists, malformations of the fetal venous system are being reported with increasing frequency [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] . Little is known about the incidence, pathophysiology and clinical implications of these anomalies.…”

The Human Fetal Venous System

“…In such cases of portal-ductal occlusion, oxygenated blood coming from the placenta is diverted into the already closed proximal left umbilical vein, causing reopening of this part of the umbilical vein and resulting in a persistent proximal left umbilical vein. 46…”