Sonographic prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart defects in thoraco-omphalopagus

Early prenatal diagnosis of conjoined twins at 7 weeks and 6 days' gestation with two-dimensional Doppler ultrasound: a case report

This case report presents the prenatal diagnosis of conjoined twins at 7 weeks and 6 days’ gestation according to the last menstrual period and 6 weeks and 4 days’ gestation according to crown-rump length in a 32-year-old Turkish woman, using two-dimensional Doppler ultrasound. The twins were fused to each other at the thoracic region (thoracopagus). In the light of previous reports of conjoined twins this appears to be one of the earliest prenatally diagnosed cases in the medical literature.

Supraventricular electrical interaction in conjoined twins with common coronary sinus

Conjoined twins with echocardiographic evidence of continuity of the coronary sinuses had identical heart rates on ECG. Both had broad, polyphasic QRS complexes, and various imaging modalities were unable to determine whether there was ventricular myocardial continuity. Administration of adenosine demonstrated that the broad polyphasic complexes were a "fusion" of the twins' individual QRS complexes, which could be clearly distinguished after administration of the drug. Ventricular pacing resulted in dissociation of the individual QRS complexes, thus demonstrating an absence of ventricular myocardial continuity. This was confirmed when the twins were successfully separated at the age of 10 months.