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Unique Brain Anomalies in an Infant of a Diabetic Mother
Author(s) -
KOUSSEFF B. G.,
VILLAVECES C.,
MARTINEZ C. R.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1991.tb11742.x
Subject(s) - medicine , polyhydramnios , endocrinology , paracrine signalling , pediatrics , gestation , pregnancy , receptor , genetics , biology
. An offspring of a class F diabetic primigravida with marginal control during the first 8 weeks of the gestation had a level II sonogram at 23 weeks. It showed polyhydramnios and “hydrocephaly”. Macrosomia, right hydroureter, megacystis and premature birth corroborated the diagnostic impression of diabetic embryopathy. At age 3 years, the child functions within the moderate range of mental retardation. Angiography, choanogram, CT and MRI scans showed unique CNS abnormalities that appeared secondary to a hamartomatous growth within the left cerebral hemisphere. Such anomaly, most likely a part of the phenotype of the diabetic embryopathy, implies a growth disturbance secondary to dysregulated paracrine growth factors (somatomedins, nerve growth factor, panregulin and/or their receptors in this case). It also indicates a possibility of interaction between two dysregulated major growth mechanisms; the endocrine in the mother considered responsible for the overall phenotype of the diabetic embryopathy/fetopathy and the paracrine fine tuning mechanism in the embryo incriminated by the hamartomatous ove/undergrowth.