Prenatal sonographic diagnosis of persistent right umbilical vein with varix

Persistence of the right umbilical vein is variably associated with life-th reatening malformations of the fetal genitourinary, gastrointestinal, cardi ac, and skeletal systems. Varices of the intraabdominal umbilical vein, alt hough not necessarily associated with other malformations, do seem to carry a risk of fetal mortality, especially if they are large or appear early du ring the pregnancy. We report the prenatal diagnosis of the rare combinatio n of persistence and varix of the right umbilical vein in an otherwise heal thy infant. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.