title: First-trimester echogenic amniotic fluid in the acrania-anencephaly sequence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the association between echogenic amniotic fluid and first-trimester fetal acrania.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nine fetuses with acrania were examined between 11 weeks' and 13 weeks 6 days' menstrual age for the presence of echogenic free-floating particles in the amniotic fluid. Cases were classified into 3 types according to the echogenicity of the amniotic fluid: similar to (type 0), slightly greater than (type 1), and clearly more echogenic than (type 2) that of the extracelomic fluid.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In 1 pregnancy, no free-floating particles were identified (type 0). In 6 cases, small free-floating particles scattered within the amniotic cavity were identified, making the amniotic fluid slightly more echogenic than the extracelomic fluid (type 1). In the remaining 2 cases, the amniotic fluid was homogeneously and clearly more echogenic than the extracelomic fluid (type 2).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A high percentage (89%) of fetuses with acrania had echogenic amniotic fluid, suggesting that this finding could potentially be used as a marker of fetal acrania in the first trimester. This finding also supports the hypothesis of the transition from acrania to anencephaly, with the unprotected brain undergoing progressive destruction from the first trimester, leading to the classic finding of anencephaly in the second trimester.
authors: Ultrasound and Prenatal Diagnosis Unit, Ecodiagnostico Alem, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Cafici
authors: Waldo
authors: W
authors: Sepulveda
mesh_terms: D000653:Amniotic Fluid / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D000757:Anencephaly / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D009436:Neural Tube Defects / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011261:Pregnancy Trimester, First; D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal