Background
Despite evidence of possible abnormalities during fetal development, no study to date
has attempted to investigate fetal brain growth in autism. Fetal head circumference
(HC) and biparietal diameter (BPD) are highly correlated with fetal brain volume and
are measured on fetal ultrasounds.
Methods
We used retrospective fetal ultrasound data to examine fetal head and body size during
midgestation in children later diagnosed with autism. Second trimester fetal ultrasounds
were collected for 45 autistic subjects and 222 control subjects. The HC, BPD, abdominal
circumference (AC), and femur length (FL) measurements were extracted from the ultrasound
records and standardized. The standardized growth parameters and discrepancies between
them were compared in autism and control subjects.
Results
The autism group did not differ significantly from control subjects on individual
measures of standardized HC, BPD, AC, and FL. Fetal HC was normal in the autism group.
Preliminary findings suggest a tendency for fetal BPD to be large relative to HC in
the autism group. An index of fetal body size, AC was significantly decreased in multiplex
compared with simplex autism, and HC showed a trend decrease. The rate of pyelectasis
was increased and breech position decreased in the autism group. No lateral ventricle
abnormalities were reported.
Conclusions
This preliminary study suggests that fetal head circumference is not abnormal in autism.
The preliminary findings identify a subtle disturbance in uniformity of fetal brain
growth and in renal development in some autistic cases, and differences in fetal development
between simplex and multiplex autism.
Key Words
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Biological PsychiatryAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Autistic disturbances of affective contact.Nervous Child. 1943; 2: 217-250
- Development of the brainstem and cerebellum in autistic patients.J Autism Dev Disord. 1995; 25: 1-18
- Minicolumnar pathology in autism.Neurology. 2002; 58: 428-432
- A small step for the cell, a giant leap for mankind: A hypothesis of neocortical expansion during evolution.Trends Neurosci. 1995; 18: 383-388
- Disruption in the inhibitory architecture of the cell minicolumn: implications for autisim.Neuroscientist. 2003; 9: 496-507
- Minicolumnar abnormalities in autism.Acta Neuropathol (Berl). 2006; 112: 287-303
- Neurobiology of Autism.Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD1994
- Macrocephaly in children and adults with autism.J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1997; 36: 282-290
- Perinatal risk factors for infantile autism.Epidemiology. 2002; 13: 417-423
- Autism and head circumference in the first year of life.Biol Psychiatry. 2004; 56: 892-894
- Accelerated head growth in early development of individuals with autism.Pediatr Neurol. 2005; 32: 102-108
- Head circumference in autism, Asperger syndrome, and ADHD: A Comparative study.Dev Med Child Neurol. 2002; 44: 296-300
- Evidence of brain overgrowth in the first year of life in autism.JAMA. 2003; 290: 337-344
- Head circumference and height in autism: A study by the Collaborative Program of Excellence in Autism.Am J Med Genet A. 2006; 140: 2257-2274
- Primary megalencephaly at birth and low intelligence level.Neurology. 1999; 53: 1254-1259
- The screening and diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorders.J Autism Dev Disord. 1999; 29: 439-484
- Atypical behaviors in children with autism and children with a history of language impairment.Res Dev Disabil. 2007; 28: 145-162
- Movement analysis in infancy may be useful for early diagnosis of autism.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998; 95: 13982-13987
- Variation in early developmental course in autism and its relation with behavioral outcome at 3–4 years of age.J Autism Dev Disord. 2005; 35: 337-350
- Attentional skills during the first 6 months of age in autism spectrum disorder.J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2002; 41: 1239-1245
- Neuropeptides and neurotrophins in neonatal blood of children with autism or mental retardation.Ann Neurol. 2001; 49: 597-606
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).4th ed. American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC1994
- Autism Diagnostic Interview—Revised: A revised version of a diagnostic interview for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorders.J Autism Dev Disord. 1994; 24: 659-685
- The autism diagnostic observation schedule-generic: A standard measure of social and communication deficits associated with the spectrum of autism.J Autism Dev Disord. 2000; 30: 205-223
- Autism screening questionnaire: Diagnostic validity.Br J Psychiatry. 1999; 175: 444-451
- Social Communication Questionnaire.Western Psychological Services, Los Angeles, CA2003
- Intraobserver and interobserver reproducibility of fetal biometry.Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 2004; 24: 654-658
- Reliability and validity of three-dimensional fetal brain volumes.J Ultrasound Med. 2001; 20: 1265-1269
- Obstetric Ultrasound: How, Why, and When.3rd ed. Churchill Livingstone, London2004
- AIUM Practice Guideline for the Performance of an Antepartum Obstetric Ultrasound Examination.AIUM, Laurel, Maryland2003
- Fetal abdominal circumference as a predictor of menstrual age.AJR Am J Roentgenol. 1982; 139: 367-370
- Fetal biparietal diameter: A critical re-evaluation of the relation to menstrual age by means of real-time ultrasound.J Ultrasound Med. 1982; 1: 97-104
- Fetal head circumference: Relation to menstrual age.AJR Am J Roentgenol. 1982; 138: 649-653
- Estimating fetal age: Computer-assisted analysis of multiple fetal growth parameters.Radiology. 1984; 152: 497-501
- Evaluation of ultrasound-estimated date of delivery in 17,450 spontaneous singleton births: do we need to modify Naegele’s rule?.Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 1999; 14: 23-28
- Correlation between self-reported gestational age and ultrasound measurements.Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2004; 83: 1039-1043
- A comparison between ultrasound and a reliable last menstrual period as predictors of the day of delivery in 15,000 examinations.Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 1996; 8: 178-185
- Controlling the false discovery rate: A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing.J Royal Stat Soc B Methodol. 1995; 57: 289-300
- On the adaptive control of the false discovery rate in multiple testing with independent statistics.J Educ Behav Stat. 2000; 25: 60-83
- Sex-specific antenatal reference growth charts for uncomplicated singleton pregnancies at 15–40 weeks of gestation.Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 2004; 23: 23-29
- Detection and assessment of pyelectasis in the fetus: Relationship to postnatal renal function.Obstet Gynecol. 1998; 92: 226-231
- Prenatal mild pyelectasis: Evaluating the thresholds of renal pelvic diameter associated with normal postnatal renal function.J Ultrasound Med. 2004; 23: 513-517
- Can breech presentation at birth be predicted from ultrasound examinations during the second or third trimesters?.Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 1994; 46: 11-14
- Increased rate of head growth during infancy in autism.JAMA. 2003; 290: 393-394
- Unusual brain growth patterns in early life in patients with autistic disorder: An MRI study.Neurology. 2001; 57: 245-254
- Autism and macrocephaly.Lancet. 1997; 349: 1744-1745
- Magnetic resonance imaging and head circumference study of brain size in autism: Birth through age 2 years.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005; 62: 1366-1376
- Brief report: Cognitive correlates of enlarged head circumference in children with autism.J Autism Dev Disord. 2003; 33: 209-215
- Regional brain enlargement in autism: A magnetic resonance imaging study.J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1996; 35: 530-536
- An MRI study of increased cortical thickness in autism.Am J Psychiatry. 2006; 163: 1290-1292
- White and gray matter development in human fetal, newborn and pediatric brains.Neuroimage. 2006; 33: 27-38
- Sequence of oligodendrocyte development in the human fetal telencephalon.Glia. 2005; 49: 480-491
- Forebrain structure in infantile autism.J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1989; 28: 534-537
- An MRI study of brain size in autism.Am J Psychiatry. 1995; 152: 1145-1149
- Outcome in children with fetal mild ventriculomegaly: A case series.Schizophr Res. 2001; 48: 219-226
- Birth order effects on nonverbal IQ in families with multiple incidence of autism or pervasive developmental disorder.J Autism Dev Disord. 1992; 22: 663-666
- Birth order effects on nonverbal IQ scores in autism multiplex families.J Autism Dev Disord. 2001; 31: 449-460
- A genetic variant that disrupts MET transcription is associated with autism.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006; 103: 16834-16839
- Late second trimester assessment of pyelectasis (SERP) to predict pediatric urological outcome is improved by checking additional features.J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. 2006; 19: 295-303
- Fetal soft markers in obstetric ultrasound.J Obstet Gynaecol Can. 2005; 27: 592-636
- Prenatal exposure to ultrasound waves impacts neuronal migration in mice.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006; 103: 12903-12910
- Three-dimensional US of the fetus: Volume imaging.Radiology. 2006; 238: 988-996
- Applications of 2-dimensional matrix array for 3- and 4-dimensional examination of the fetus: A pictorial essay.J Ultrasound Med. 2006; 25: 745-755
Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 08, 2007
Accepted:
March 27,
2007
Received in revised form:
March 9,
2007
Received:
August 24,
2006
Identification
Copyright
© 2007 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
