title: An acardiac twin with advanced brain development and a minor form of holoprosencephaly and intracerebral retina-like pigmented tissue: a case report and review of the literature.
abstract: The development of an acardiac twin in a monochorionic multiple pregnancy is a rare and severe complication of abnormal placental vascular anastomoses. These malformed fetuses present with a very bizarre morphology and a plethora of different malformations. However, all acardiac twins show either a complete absence or an anlage of the heart. Cerebral development is usually poor. We report, according to our review of the literature, for the first time, a very unusual case of acardius with features of acardius amorphus and acormus (fused head and malformed axial skeleton without macroscopically detectable internal organs) with lobar holoprosencephaly and intracerebral pigmented retina-like tissue.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paidopathology, University of Bonn Medical Center, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huss
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fronhoffs
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Gembruch
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Loeffler
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Born
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gessi
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kuchelmeister
authors.forename: Annette M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Müller
mesh_terms: D000015:Abnormalities, Multiple; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000002:abnormalities*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000002:abnormalities*; D004200:Diseases in Twins; D005260:Female; D005330:Fetofetal Transfusion / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000473:pathology*; D016142:Holoprosencephaly / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D010858:Pigmentation; D011247:Pregnancy; D012160:Retina; D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal