Transabdominal Application of Transvaginal Transducer Enhancing Depiction of Mature Cystic Teratoma at 34 Weeks' Gestation

ABSTRACT

We present an unusual case in which a 36-year-old patient was referred for consultation due to increasing upper left abdominal pain at 35 weeks' gestation. Transabdominal ultrasonography disclosed an appropriate-for-gestational-age singleton, vertex-presenting fetus with normal anatomy. An unclear, complex, semisolid, semicystic mass was noted in the upper right abdomen. Due to the close proximity of the adnexal mass to the patient's abdominal wall, a high-frequency transvaginal transducer was applied transabdominally. Unlike the unclear images generated at conventional transabdominal ultrasonography, this application depicted a discrete mass with multiple characteristics consisting of calcifications, hair and fatty tissue, considered diagnostic of a mature cystic ovarian teratoma. The patient delivered spontaneously at 39 weeks' gestation. At 6 weeks' postpartum an elective laparotomy left ovarian cystectomy was performed and a mature cystic teratoma confirmed by pathology examination.

Keywords

Prenatal ultrasonography - transabdominal US - transvaginal US - mature cystic teratoma - dermoid cyst