Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

OC178: Possible ultrasound markers for fetal alcohol syndrome: assessment of the fetal face and brain

2004; Wiley; Volume: 24; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/uog.1294

1469-0705

Louise Matthews, Anna‐Susan Marais, Helen H. Kay, Denis Viljoen,

Neonatal and fetal brain pathology

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) has reached endemic proportions in areas of the Western Cape, South Africa, and our study aimed to establish if it was possible to identify any of the facial features of FAS in utero, and also to demonstrate any structural brain changes in fetuses exposed to alcohol. This prospective, blinded, case-control study compared two groups of pregnant patients. The study group, who drank heavily in pregnancy, and the control group, who abstained, or drank lightly while pregnant. Detailed ultrasound examination was conducted at 24 and 28 weeks' gestation, where measurements were recorded of the distance between the fetal orbits, intracranial measurements of the frontal lobe and transverse cerebellar diameter, and the upper lip. Multivariate multilevel longitudinal models were used to analyse the results. After attrition, there were 60 subjects and 60 controls. There was a significant difference between the 2 groups in the distance between the inner margins of the fetal orbits i.e the fetuses of the drinking mothers were more widely spaced. The fetal frontal lobe was marginally larger in fetuses exposed to alcohol (distance from frontal calvarium to cavum septum pellucidum). There was no difference in cerebellar measurements, and measurement of the distance from fetal upper lip to nose proved technically unreliable, and was non-contributory. We concluded that there were significant changes in the fetal forebrain and the fetal orbits in fetuses exposed to alcohol, which could be identified on ultrasound. We suggest follow up of these babies after birth, and recommend studies with larger patient numbers to confirm these findings.