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This study aims to confirm the relationship between gestational age (GA) and transverse cerebellar diameter (TCD), to define the prediction of GA by TCD, and assess the reliability of TCD measurements. Infants were included in the study if they had a routine cranial ultrasound scan by day 3, and the TCD was measured. Infants were excluded from the study if the GA was not known, if there was any cranio-spinal malformation or grade 3 or 4 intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH). The GA assessment was an early pregnancy scan or certain dates. Cranial ultrasound scans were done with a LOGIQ 500 scanner (GE Medical Systems, Waukesha, WI, USA) with a 7 MHz curvilinear sector probe (GE LOGIQ-C721; GE Medical Systems). The posterior fossa was scanned using the asterion as the acoustic window with the TCD measured in the coronal plane. Intra- and interobserver reliability were assessed. A total of 221 infants of known GA had their TCD measured. The linear regression for GA versus TCD is: GA(weeks) = (0.470 x TCD(millimetres)) + 13.162 (r = 0.89, r(2) = 0.79, P < 0.001). The 95% confidence interval predicts GA to +/- 2.33 weeks for a given TCD. Intra- and interobserver intraclass correlation coefficients are 0.98 and 0.99, respectively. Transverse cerebellar diameter correlates closely with GA and predicts GA to +/- 2.33 weeks. Measurements of TCD have excellent reproducibility.

We described a male infant with a spectrum of anomalies compatible with the diagnosis of 'disorganization-like syndrome'. The infant had a partial foot arising from the right buttock, an absent right kidney, and a shortened right leg with severe non-positional talipes equinovarus. The infant's karyotype was 47,XXY. The right common iliac artery was one half of the expected diameter. The limb reduction defect seen in this case of disorganization (Ds) may have had a vascular aetiology.

Facilities for the antenatal diagnosis of homozygous beta thalassaemia have recently become available in Australia and in this paper, data from a series of 18 pregnancies examined at The Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, are analysed. Fetal blood was collected by fetoscopy and adequate samples were obtained in 16 cases (89%). In 5 pregnancies, fetal blood was shown to have a marked reduction in beta globin production (beta/alpha synthesis less than 0.030) and these pregnancies were terminated. Two pregnancies (11%) were lost in the immediate post-fetoscopy period and in a third pregnancy, neonatal death followed premature labour at 26 weeks' gestation. Seven babies were delivered normally at 36-40 weeks' gestation and cord blood studies excluded homozygous thalassaemia in all cases. The remaining pregnancy has yet to be delivered.