Prenatal detection of facial clefts

isolated cleft lip and/or cleft palate during the routine anomaly scan; (2) the correlation between prenatal diagnosis and postnatal findings, and (3) the association of apparently isolated cleft lip andlor cleft palate with other anomalies, in particular chromosomal abnormalities. Method;A populati on-based retrospective analysis of all cases of isolated cleft lip andlor c left during an 8-year period in an academic teaching hospital in the UK. Re sults: Thirty-nine cases of isolated cleft lip and/or cleft palate were ide ntified among deliveries at the hospital. Twenty-eight cases had a routine anomaly scan, Fourteen cases were detected prenatally (sensitivity 50%). No ne of the isolated cleft palates was detected, while 14 of 20 cases of clef t lip (70%) were detected. One of the isolated cases of cleft lip was assoc iated with trisomy 21, while 3 of the isolated cleft palate cases were asso ciated with the Pierre Robin syndrome. In all cases, an antenatal diagnosis of cleft was confirmed following delivery or post-mortem examination (spec ificity 100%). Conclusions: Ultrasound is a useful tool in screening for cl eft lip with or without cleft palate, but not for cleft palate alone. Even with an isolated cleft lip, there is an increased risk of chromosomal abnor mality. The role of prenatal education and support is extremely important i n the preparation of prospective parents and can help alleviate the shock w hich occurs when there is an unexpected cleft at birth. Copyright (C) 2001 S.Karger AG,Basel.