All issues > Volume 27(1); 1984

Case Report

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1984;27(1):84-88. Published online January 31, 1984.

A Case of Acardius Twin.

Kyung Hyo Kim¹, Jung Soo Park¹, Mina Lee¹, Hye Kyung Lee², Sung Sik Shin², Je G Chi²

¹Department of Pediatrics, Cheil Hospital
²Department of Pathology, Seoul National University Hospital, Korea

Abstract

A case of acardiac twins to a 30 year-old primiparous mother is presented. This case was diagnosed to have this anomaly by ultrasonography at 28 weeks and 33 weeks of gestation. The acardiac monster was delivered as the second twin without any signs of Life. It weighed 2,175 gms and was connected to the placenta by an umbilical cord having single umbilical artery. But as the placenta was missed, relationships of placental vessels between two babies were not confirmed. This acardiac baby was extremely edematous and had multiple cystic lymphangiomas in the head, neck and on upper trunk. Characteristically, there was no heart. Instead, the vascular system, consisted of parallel aorta and vena cava, would have been connected to the umbilical vessels of the first baby.Systemic organs had multiple anomalies, but extremities were relatively well developed. The first baby of the twins survived for 25 hours and died of respiratory distress. Postmortem examination revealed no other significant finding except slight cardiomegaly. This case is of particular interest in the sence of degree of differentiation of the acardiac twin and also the association of cystic lymphangioma. A brief review is also made.

Keywords :Acardius twin; cystic lymphangioma