Fetal ear assessment and prenatal detection of aneuploidy by the quantitative three-dimensional ultrasonography

Age- and sex-related changes in the normal human ear

“…Ear area [6,11,21] was proposed by Chang et al [14] as prenatal, intrauterine marker of fetal aneuploidy, but it was not reported in other postnatal investigations, even if it could well discriminate between normal persons and persons with Down's syndrome [11].…”

“…Postnatal abnormalities in ear dimensions and position are common findings in several alterations of the human chromosomes and karyotype, and in developmental defects of the first and second branchial archs [3,10,11,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. For instance, in persons with Down's syndrome ear length and width are reduced, the earlobe is often more protruding from head surface, and there is an increased right-left asymmetry [10,11,[13][14][15][16]19,22]. In contrast, wide ears can be found in Apert and Crouzon syndromes [1,10,19].…”

“…Low-set ears can be found in persons with Noonan syndrome [17,20], and with trisomy 13 and 18 [10]; prominent ears can be found in Turner syndrome [22]. Such modifications can be detected even during intrauterine life, and ear length has been recently, tentatively proposed as a further marker for ultrasound-based prenatal screening of aneuploidy [14,22,23].…”

Anthropometric growth study of auricle of healthy preterm and term newborns

“…Chang et al [22] used 3D ultrasonography for the assessment of the auricular area and found benefits of this tecnique. They reported that the auricular areas were in comply with the gestational ages and they discussed that auricular area was an important index in the evaluation for facial dysmorphism and detecting the anoploidy.…”

Three-dimensional Sonography in the Assessment of Normal Fetal Anatomy in Late Pregnancy

“…35,36 By determination of the line between the orbits and peak of the auricle of the fetal ear we can assess normal and low-set ears. Low-set ears are associated with aneuploidies.…”