Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Feb 6, 2021; 9(4): 912-918
Published online Feb 6, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i4.912
Apert syndrome diagnosed by prenatal ultrasound combined with magnetic resonance imaging and whole exome sequencing: A case report
Lei Chen, Fei-Xiang Huang
Lei Chen, Ultrasonography Department, Hangzhou Women’s Hospital, Hangzhou 310008, Zhejiang Province, China
Fei-Xiang Huang, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hangzhou Women’s Hospital, Hangzhou 310008, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Chen L participated in the design of the report, analyzed the data and collected the imaging materials; Huang FX analyzed the data, wrote the paper, designed the report and revised the article. The two authors contributed equally to this work and are considered co-first authors.
Informed consent statement: Consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Fei-Xiang Huang, PhD, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hangzhou Women’s Hospital, No. 369 Kunpeng Road, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou 310008, Zhejiang Province, China. fxhuang2009@163.com
Received: September 18, 2020
Peer-review started: September 18, 2020
First decision: November 23, 2020
Revised: December 6, 2020
Accepted: December 16, 2020
Article in press: December 16, 2020
Published online: February 6, 2021
Processing time: 121 Days and 4.6 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Most cases of Apert syndrome (AS) are found after birth. Cases of AS diagnosed by ultrasound combined with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and whole exome sequencing (WES) during pregnancy are rare.

CASE SUMMARY

We present the case of a 34-year old female patient (gravida 2, para 1) whose fetus was diagnosed with AS during pregnancy. Fetal ultrasound performed at 30, 2/7 wk of pregnancy showed abnormalities. MRI and three-dimensional ultrasound performed at 31, 1/7 wk of pregnancy showed the possibility of AS. Chromosome examination and core family WES were conducted at 31, 5/7 wk of pregnancy. The results showed that FGFR2 in the fetus had a c.755C>G missense mutation in its nucleotide, and AS was confirmed.

CONCLUSION

This case highlights the importance of imaging examinations. Prenatal ultrasound combined with MRI can identify fetal morphological abnormalities accurately, which can be confirmed by WES.

Keywords: Apert syndrome; Prenatal ultrasound; Magnetic resonance imaging; Whole exome sequencing; FGFR2; Case report

Core Tip: Apert syndrome (AS) during pregnancy is rare. We present a case of AS diagnosed by prenatal ultrasound combined with magnetic resonance imaging and whole exome sequencing in late pregnancy. Our case also shows that S252W mutation of AS is related to syndactyly and craniofacial dysplasia, and suggests that young paternal age is also related to AS. We reviewed the three-dimensional fetal ultrasound at 23, 5/7 wk of gestation and found some suspicious images such as craniosynostosis and raised forehead. This shows that improved awareness of AS and prenatal imaging are important.