Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, Vol 20, Issue 1 59-62, Copyright © 2001 by American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
Fused umbilical arteries: prenatal sonographic diagnosis and clinical significance
W. Sepulveda, V. Dezerega, E. Carstens and J. Gutierrez
Fetal Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Clinica Las Condes, Santiago, Chile.
This report describes a series of 5 fetuses with fused umbilical arteries
that had the prenatal feature of a single umbilical artery near the
placental insertion and the normal 2 umbilical arteries at the fetal end of
the cord. In 1 case this vascular anomaly was associated with unilateral
renal agenesis in a fetus with a subsequent diagnosis of Hallermann-Streiff
syndrome. No perinatal complications were identified in the remaining 4
fetuses. Postpartum examination of the cord revealed that the 2 umbilical
arteries fused to form 1 artery for a long segment of the distal portion of
the cord. Our findings suggest that the prenatal evaluation of the
umbilical cord to document the number of vessels should include multiple
views of the cord and demonstration of the 2 intra-abdominal umbilical
arteries with color Doppler imaging for a confident diagnosis. Our
observation also suggests that, at least in some cases, single umbilical
artery may result from incomplete splitting of the single artery normally
present in early human embryos.
