The assessment of fetal behavior of a fetus with lissencephaly by 4D ultrasound

Abstract

Lissencephaly is malformation of gyral and sulcal structures of the cerebrum as a result of abnormal neuronal migration. The most common clinical manifestations of lissencephaly are severe psychomotor retardation, developmental defects, seizures, failure to thrive, and infant or early childhood deaths. Because direct assessment of functional development of the central nervous system in fetus and infant is not feasible, patients with lissencephaly who survive infancy are usually not diagnosed until childhood. Recently, the analysis of fetal behavior has been proposed as a measure of neurological maturation, which would be valuable in the diagnostic pathway of lissencephaly. In our knowledge the assessment of fetal behavior in a fetus with lissencephaly was not published yet in the literature.