Dichorionic twin pregnancy with sirenomelia and chromosomal anomaly in 1 fetus: A case report

Sirenomelia is a rare congenital malformation that threatens fetal survivals. The cases in which twin with sirenomelia and chromosomal abnormality have been seldomly reported. We reported a dichorionic twin case in which one twin had sirenomelia, the other twin had a normal phenotype, and they had different chromosomal abnormalities.

The abnormal twin was found at 22 weeks by ultrasound. The sirenomelia fetus was complicated with a thoracic stenosis, enlarged rectum without anal opening, the absence of bilateral kidneys, a single umbilical artery, a single lower limb, the abnormal curvature of spine, double outlet of right ventricle, which were the indicatives of the chromosome detection.

The copy number variation of the sirenomelia fetus was detected as a deletion of 4.8Mb in 11p11.12-11q11. The co-twin was found with del(Y)(q11.223q11.23), which was as the same as his father's. The mother had normal chromosome. The parents had normal phenotypes. It was firstly reported a microdeletion with sirenomelia fetus.

There was no specific treatments for the twins.

Intrauterine death of the sirenomelia fetus was found at 27 weeks and postnatal death after inevitable abortion happened to the co-twin.

Prenatal ultrasound was responsible for recognizing sirenomelia, and the detailed ultrasound scanning and chromosome detection should be done for the co-twin. The etiology of sirenomelia remains unclear, and genetic detection is also necessary for its pathogenesis research.