Intrapericardial fetal teratoma. Antenatal ultrasonic diagnosis of a case

Intrapericardial teratomas are rare armors usually occurring in early infan cy. Such a case was diagnosed in a 20 week old fetus, with a lethal outcome . About fifteen cases of intrapericardial teratoma have been reported in th e fetal period. They are usually symptomatic, with a more or less severe pe ricardial effusion, sometimes complicated by cardiac compression and/or hyd rops fetalis. Prognosis of the prenatally diagnosed pericardial teratomas i s mole related to the occurrence of hydrops fetalis than to the behavior of the tumor itself. The main interest of sonographic ante-natal diagnosis co nsists of the possible improvement of hemodynamic consequences through in u tero pericardiocentesis. Macroscopic and microscopic features of this cardi ac tumor are similar to those of extrapericardial teratomas. Most tumors di scovered in fetal period are mature and histologically benign lesions. Only one case showed immature components. The coexistence of a malignant compon ent (germ cell or non germ cell tumor) has been described in the postnatal and adulthood.