Lateral ventricles in fetuses with aneuploidies at 11–13 weeks' gestation

Abstract

Objective To examine the possible association between aneuploidies and fetal lateral cerebral ventriculomegaly in the first trimester of pregnancy. Methods

Reference Values for the Right and Left Fetal Choroid Plexus at 11 to 13 Weeks

“…What is highly notable in our study, in comparison to what has been previously published, is that in previous publications, no distinction had been made between the right and left sides: in a study by Loureiro et al, 10 the entire choroid plexus, both right and left, was evaluated. In this study, our results revealed a statistically significant difference between the right and left sides, with the left choroid plexus being larger in all 3 parameters.…”

“…Reference values for the choroid plexus circumference and its ratio to the lateral ventricular circumference beyond 14 weeks were established in 1995, and the role of the ratio in the detection of hydrocephalus was evaluated 15 . In addition, the ratio of the choroid plexus area to the lateral ventricular area in healthy first‐trimester fetuses has been compared to that in fetuses with aneuploidy, and there seemed to be evidence of ventriculomegaly in 32.4% of fetuses with trisomy 18 and 85.7% of fetuses with trisomy 13 10 . Thus, we sought to establish the reference ranges for the length, area, and circumference of the fetal choroid plexus at 11 to 13 weeks and compare the right and left sides.…”

“…This marker was followed by the intracerebral translucency 6 , 7 and the fetal biparietal diameter 8 for the early screening of spina bifida. Recently, Lachmann et al 9 addressed the role of the fetal posterior fossa in the early recognition of Dandy‐Walker malformations, and Loureiro et al 10 evaluated the lateral ventricles in cases of fetal aneuploidy. In addition, the spatial relationships between the plane of the fetal abdominal circumference to the planes of the fetal biparietal diameter and choroid plexus have been established 11 …”

Prenatal Detection of Fetal Anomalies at the 11- to 13-Week Scan—Part I: Brain, Face and Neck

“…Recently, three-dimensional ultrasound has been used to determine the normal width of the lateral cerebral ventricles in normal and aneuploid fetuses; mild ventriculomegaly has been noted in fetuses with trisomy 13 and 18. 35 However, from the diagnostic point of view, the detection of other evident ultrasound features in association with these aneuploidies would probably make the demonstration of ventriculomegaly in these cases very limited.…”

Sonographic detection of central nervous system defects in the first trimester of pregnancy

“…Reference values for the fetal ventricular system in the first trimester are available but should be interpreted with care as brain formation is still ongoing and mild ventriculomegaly may still be a variation of normal. Nevertheless, first‐trimester enlargement of the lateral ventricle has been described in fetuses with aneuploidy . However, the type of chromosomal anomaly has an influence on the ventricle size in the first trimester as the ratio of choroid plexus area to lateral ventricles area is smaller in cases with trisomies 18 and 13 but remains unchanged in trisomy 21 compared with euploid fetuses .…”