[Vestibular schwannoma]. / Schwannoma vestibular.

The vestibular schwannoma is a benign intracranial tumor of the myelin-forming cells of the vestibulocochlear nerve or cranial nerve VIII. It comprises 8-10% of all intracranial neoplasms in adults. It originates in the vestibular portion of the cranial nerve VIII and it is located in the cerebellopontine angle. This disorder is characterized by ipsilateral hearing loss, tinnitus, disturbed sense of balance and altered gait, facial numbness, muscle weakness or ipsilateral paralysis. This report presents the magnetic resonance imaging of a patient with this rare condition.

[Morning glory syndrome]. / Síndrome de Morning Glory.

In 1970, Kindier described the morning glory syndrome. This syndrome is a congenital abnormality of the optic nerve with unilateral presence and very low incidence. It is characterized by an enlarged optical disc, deep excavation, presence of traces of radial glia, and arrangement of retinal vascularization. This report describes the fundoscopic image in a patient with morning glory syndrome.

Delayed lung maturation of foetus of diabetic mother rats develop with a diminish, but without changes in the proportion of type I and II pneumocytes, and decreased expression of protein D-associated surfactant factor.

Newborn children of diabetic mothers have an increased morbidity and mortality because of respiratory distress syndrome. We study lung histogenesis during intrauterine development of offspring of diabetic Sprague-Dawley rats at 18, 19 and 21 days of gestation (DG). Pregnant rats were grouped into diabetic (streptozotocin-induced), citrate, and control groups; five female and five male offspring were selected randomly from each group at 18, 19 and 21 DG, and a biopsy of the lung was taken and processed in paraffin for histological examination. The biopsy for the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis was taken at 21 days. A delay in alveolization of the offspring at 18, 19 and 21 days of the diabetic group was observed, which was confirmed at TEM level, and also less quantity of protein D associated to surfactant in diabetic group was detected (P < 0.001). The foetuses of the diabetic group presented a delay in lung histogenesis and in differentiation of the type II pneumocytes cells, but conserved the proportion with a decrease in 50% of pneumocytes, accompanied by a diminish of protein D associated to surfactant factor.

[Frequency of external congenital abnormalities in abortions]. / Frecuencia de malformaciones congénitas externas en abortos.

The purpose of this study was to calculate the incidence of external birth defects found in 1,650 aborted fetuses studied from September 1978 to February 1983 at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics of the University Hospital "Dr. José Eleuterio González" of the U.A.N.L. Medical School. Ninety five of fetuses had external birth defects and 85 had abnormalities in annexes. The Fisher exact test was applied to find the relationship between these abnormalities; no relationship was found. 67.4% had only one birth defect; 32.1% showed several defects. Those defects which were lethal constituted 67%, the majority being of the central nervous system. Defects found in the abdominal wall took second place in frequency followed by abnormalities in either extremity and ear defects. The birth defects seen in early gestational ages differ from those seen in live newborn babies. It is important to carry out morphological and teratological studies, not only in newborns but also during the embrion and fetal periods.

[Congenital malformations in live-born neonates]. / Malformaciones congénitas en recién nacidos vivos.

A retrospective study on the incidence and prevalence of congenital malformations in living newborns registered during a period of two years (1987-1988) at the University Hospital "Dr. José Eleuterio González" in Monterrey, Nuevo León was conducted. The data was tabulated based on the classification codes established by the World Health Organization (WHO), grouped according to organs and systems and by sex. Of a total of 9,675 living newborns registered, 224 (2.31%) had a congenital malformation: 102 males, 121 females and one of undetermined sex. The greatest incidence corresponded to the central nervous system, following in descending order the cardiovascular and muscular-skeletal systems, cleft lip and palate, digestive system, genitalia, chromosomic anomalies, respiratory and urinary systems and congenital cataracts. The prevalence of congenital malformations in our population is similar to that reported in other countries with respect to neural tube defects. Muscular-skeletal and multiple malformations were less frequent than seen in other hospitals.