Arterial tortuosity syndrome (ATS) is a rare, autosomal recessive, connective tissue disorder. It predominantly involves the arterial tree with clinical features reflecting the systems involved. There have been few cases of ATS suspected during antenatal screening ultrasound in high-risk families, but none confirmed. We present the first case of ATS confirmed antenatally in the fetus with cascade testing, detecting the disease in the mother as well.

Intracardiac teratomas are rare primary tumours. We report the case of an infant prenatally diagnosed with an isolated multi-cystic mass developed in the right ventricle causing neonatal refractory ventricular arrhythmia. Despite rescue extracorporeal support and partial surgical resection, he died as almost all the previous reported perinatal intracardiac teratomas whatever the prenatal tolerance and the size of the tumour. The common poor outcome of fetal intracardiac teratomas should be known when counselling parents during pregnancy.

In this study, we describe a fetus with double-outlet atrium associated with complex arrangement of the ventricles and the great vessels. Various presentations of this malformation not described antenatally are discussed.

We describe an infant with duct-dependent cardiac disease diagnosed prenatally who was born prematurely, and at extremely low weight. Treatment by infusion of prostaglandin maintained ductal patency for 66 days, permitting weight to be gained whilst under the care of a regional unit for neonatal intensive care prior to transfer for palliative cardiac surgery.

The diagnosis of multiple gestation at the time of genetic amniocentesis is a routine occurrence. In a combined series of 2765 patients referred for antenatal genetic studies from the Medical College of Virginia and the University of Iowa, 34 twin pregnancies were encountered (1.2%). Twenty-six of the patients with twins were referred for advanced maternal age. The other indications were previous neural tube defects (1), previous trisomy 21 (2), known carriers of Tay Sachs disease (2), previous Turner's syndrome (1), family history of trisomy 21 (1), and one pregnancy was referred because of an abnormal ultrasound. Amniocentesis procedures, outcome of the twin pregnancies, and genetic counseling issues, are discussed.