Ultrasound diagnosis of fetal Turner's syndrome

Summary

Occasionally, in second trimester spontaneous abortions. fetuses with a highly characteristic appearance occur (Figure 1). They arc phenotypically female. and have enormous cervical hygromas and generalised subcutaneous oedema. Those which have been successfully karyotyped have a 45, X chromosome constitution: consequently such fetuses are regarded as being a fetal form of Turner's syndrome (Singh and Carr, 1966). We report the characteristic ultrasound findings of such a fetus at 22 weeks maturity.