[Diagnostic and etiologic problems of hydranencephaly (author's transl)]. / Problemática diagnóstica y etiológica de la hidranencefalia. A propósito de un caso.

A report of hydranencephaly is made, featuring normal cephalic perimeter and where diagnosis was a pathological finding. There were no clinical suspiscions and fetal distress along with post-partum anoxia were thought to be the chief causes of the disease. A revision of clinical, diagnostic and etiological factors of this particular entity is made. It is of concern to aim this report in the direction of considering phosphorous-organic products to have a teratogenic action and therefore to be an interesting etiological aspect in the production of hydranencephaly.

[Hydranencephaly and ingestion of estrogens during pregnancy. Fetal cerebral vascular complication?]. / Hydranencéphalie et prise d'oestrogènes pendant la grossesse. Accident vasculaire cérébral foetal?

The authors report a case of hydranencephaly which could result from a massive intake of oestrogens in a 18 week-gravid mother. After a brief clinical summary, the role of oestrogens in the triggering of a fetal circulatory disorder is discussed.

Transplacental induction of myeloschisis associated with hindbrain crowding and other malformations in the central nervous system in Long-Evans rats.

Nine groups of 66 pregnant rats, grouped by gestation days 11 to 19, were subjected to a single, intragastric administration of ethylenethiourea (ETU). Cesarean section was performed on gestation day 20. No dam died following the ETU treatment, although a mortality as high as 21.2% was noted among the fetuses in this group; the remaining live fetuses were found to suffer from a high incidence of myeloschisis associated with hindbrain crowding. Exencephaly and abnormally enlarged head with occipital bossing due to the herniation of the mesencephalic tectum, with and without dilation of the mesencephalic and 4th ventricles, were induced among the fetuses of the dams given ETU at gestation days 12 and 13. Various degrees of hydranencephaly and dysplastic hydrocephalus were found among the fetuses of dams treated by ETU from gestation days 14 to 18. From the histological features of these malformations of the central nervous system (CNS), a possible mechanism in the induction of myeloschisis with hindbrain crowding induced by ETU is discussed, and compared with the previously reported similar malformations induced by trypan blue.