Conservative Management With a Multimodal Approach of a 12-Week Cervical Ectopic Pregnancy With Fetal Megacystis.

Cervical ectopic pregnancy is the rarest kind of ectopic pregnancy, and it is known as the implantation of an embryo into the cervical mucosa. It is commonly associated with complications such as hemorrhage from the cervix and can lead to severe consequences if it is not treated early. For this reason, the treatment for a cervical pregnancy often requires an abdominal hysterectomy. To avoid such radical management, several conservative methods of termination have been used. In this paper, we report a complex management of one of our ectopic cervical cases, which includes embolization of the uterine arteries, treatment with methotrexate and mifepristone, evacuation of the pregnancy followed by local hemostatic sutures and application of a balloon in the cervix. The post-operative period was uneventful. After a three-day postoperative stay, the patient was discharged. The management options employed in the presented case achieved the goal of preserving fertility for our patient. There are no specific guidelines for the treatment of cervical pregnancies in advanced gestational age.

Hyperglycosylated-hCG: Its Role in Trophoblast Invasion and Intrauterine Growth Restriction.

Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is produced by the placenta and its roles have been studied for over a century, being the first known pregnancy-related protein. Although its main role is to stimulate the production of progesterone by corpus luteal cells, hCG does not represent just one biologically active molecule, but a group of at least five variants, produced by different cells and each with different functions. The hyperglycosylated variant of hCG (H-hCG) plays a key role in trophoblast invasion, placental development and fetal growth. During trophoblast invasion, H-hCG promotes extravillous cytotrophoblast cells to infiltrate the decidua, and also to colonize and remodel the spiral arteries in to low resistance, larger-diameter vessels. As fetal growth is heavily reliant on nutrient availability, impaired trophoblast invasion and remodeling of the uterine arteries, leads to a defective perfusion of the placenta and fetal growth restriction. Understanding the function of H-hCG in the evolution of the placenta might unveil new ways to manage and treat fetal growth restriction.

The wide spectrum of ultrasound diagnosis of holoprosencephaly.

AIM: Holoprosencephaly (HPE) is the most common brain malformation. A wide spectrum of anatomical variants are characterized by a lack of midline separation of the cerebral hemispheres. The aim of this study was to assess the ultrasound diagnostic criteria for HPE. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A database of 175 fetuses with central nervous system anomalies identified by ultrasound was collected retrospectively from 2006 to 2016 in this multicenter, retrospective, observational study. Among them 18 cases (10.2%) with HPE were identified. RESULTS: The prevalence of HPE was 2.5:10.000 with the sex distributionmale:female of 1:1.6. Six cases were alobar subtype, 3 were semilobar, 7 were lobar and 2 were middle interhemispheric variant. In the second trimester, we consider that the abnormal fusion of the lateral ventricles and the absence of the cavum septum pellucidum are the most important landmarks for HPE. Facial abnormalities varied considerably. CONCLUSION: This study illustrates the heterogeneity of HPE with different cerebral and facial appearances.