Aortic dissection: How to identify it during an abdominal ultrasound examination and achieve a potentially lifesaving diagnosis.

Aortic dissection (AD) is a rare and potentially fatal condition that may be diagnosed late. During an emergency or elective abdominal ultrasound (US) examination, when going to evaluate the abdominal aorta for other reasons, it may happen that we find ourselves suspecting an AD. It is therefore important to know the US characteristics of this pathology to avoid wrong or missed diagnoses. Here, we present our practical experience regarding the application of US in the study of the abdominal aorta, which allowed us on several occasions to find an unexpected dissection in patients brought to our attention for other reasons.

"Daddy wrist": A high-resolution ultrasound diagnosis of de Quervain tenosynovitis.

De Quervain's tenosynovitis involves the first of the six dorsal compartments of the wrist, which contains the abductor pollicis longus (APL) and extensor pollicis brevis (EPB) tendons. It seems to be associated with female sex (F:M = 10:1), middle age (30-50 years) and activities involving repetitive hand and wrist motions such as typing, piano playing or repetitively lifting children head, such as in postpartum females (hence the term "baby wrist" or "mommy wrist"). Aim of this paper was to illustrate high-resolution ultrasound (US) features of the DQD by describing a well-documented case that occurred in a "new dad" taking care of his babe. Hence, firstly in literature we could refer to this condition with the term of "daddy wrist".

A case of polimalformed fetus with a microdeletion of CTNNA3 gene.

We report a case of a male fetus of 20 weeks of gestation with plurimalformed observed by transonic scan and confirmed by MR. The karyotype was 46, XY. Molecular analysis showed a microdeletion of about 100 kb in the CTNNA3 gene.

Congenital megaurethra in a fetus with Meckel syndrome and in a fetus with female pseudoermanphroditism. The first report of these occurrences.

OBJECTIVE: the purpose of this paper is to report the first case of megaurethra in a fetus with Meckel syndrome and in a fetus with femal pseudoermaphroditism. RESULTS: the former case refers to a fetus of 13 weeks gestation with the three following prominent anomalies, observed by transonic scan and confirmed by autopsy: congenital megaurethra, anal atresia, single umbelical artery. The latter case refers to a fetus of 18 weeks gestation. Autopsy confirmed penile malformation and revealed ovaries in the abdomen. The karyotype was 46,XX with normal molecular karytype. The megaurethra was discovered by sonography at 18 weeks gestation. Autopsy confirmed penile malformation and revealed ovaries in the abdomen. The karyotype was 46,XX with normal molecular karyotype (Array-CGH, 1 Mb of resolution). METHODS: transonic scan, autopsy, karyotype, array-CGH. CONCLUSIONS: the first prenatal cases of two genetic syndromes with megaurethra have been reported, concening respectively a fetus with Meckel syndrome and a fetus with femal pseudoermaphroditism. The latter was confirmed by both autopsy and the normal female 46,XX karyotype.