ANENCEPHALY IN FETUSES OF MOTHER WITH TETRALOGY OF FALLOT

Abstract

A few congenital cardiac patients with the tetralogy of Fallot reach adult life. These persons are usually handicapped and lead restricted lives. Pregnancy in a patient so afflicted may be attended by serious consequences in both the mother and child. Black-Schaffer¹reported an infant of dwarfed stature and marasmus born to a 26-year-old mother with cyanotic congenital heart disease. Talbot²believed that most congenital malformations that were the result of lack of embryonic development were not hereditary defects but were acquired in utero. He considered that these developmental defects were due to injury to the placenta during the early weeks of pregnancy, with maternal hematogenous infection of the placental blood vessels being responsible. Talbot described 20 consecutive cases of deformed babies in which there was evidence of placental damage near the base of the cord. Six of the 20 infants were anencephalic. Ingalls and associates³in 1950