unborn baby

  My son and his wife were told today that their ultra sound at 4 months showed that their baby had an cyst on its brain. they only hear this over the phone and didn't get much information. Can you explain to me what this means? And can this be fixed and cured. This is their first and very speicial, because she was told for years she would never have ababy.Any information you can give or where to look for more would help me to understand this. I had never heard of this before.thank you Pat
  also is a spastic colon like what a spastic muscle is, the mascle in my calfs.
Dear Pat:
I am sorry to hear that your grandson/daughter has a cyst "on" it brain.  A cyst is a fluid-filled sac, in this case it is likely CSF fluid.  I know that you do not have any information on location.  The prognosis will vary depending on where the cyst is located, size of the cyst, whether it is growing etc.  It would be important to find out this information.  If the cyst is located in the posterior fossa then it could be either enlargement of the 4th ventricle, enlargement of the cisterna magna, or arachnoidal cyst.  The arachnoidal cyst rarely presents in the neuonatal period.  The enlarged 4th ventricle could be a Dandy-Walker malformation, which when diagnosed in the prenatal period carries a 38% mortality and if the child survives there is a 75% chance of subnormal intelligence.  There are some rare disorders also associated with enlargement of the 4th ventricle such as Joubert syndrome which consists of hyperpnea, jerking eye movements, hypotonia, and mental retardation.  Some infants with this enlarged 4th ventricle only have trunk titubation (tremor like movements) and intention tremor.  The other case of posterior fossa CSF collection is called the "trapped" fourth ventricle.  The aqueduct and the outflow of the fourth ventricle are obstructed by an inflammoatory process provoked by blood or bacterial menintitis.  An enlarged cisterna magna presents as hypotonia, tremor, nonprogressive macrocephaly.  One study should that 62% of the cases have developmental and neurological abnormalities.   Certain in utero infections such as CMV infection can cause cystic looking areas of the brain that are really only enlarged ventricles.  Brain tumors can also be seen as cystic lesions on ultra sound.  The most common is the teratoma, but other turmors can also be seen.  All of these have pretty poor outcomes.  There can also be artery-vein malformations that can present as cysts on ultrasound.  So as you can see, there are alot of types of diseases that can present as cyts on the prenatal ultrsound.  Most of them, depending on their location, size, and etiology do not have a very favorable outcome.  However, there are some cysts that may have a benign outcome with little noticable neurological deficit.  Are there any other malformations?  I would have your grandson or daughter evaluated by a pediatric neurologist, at least have the ultrasound looked at.  The OB should be able to help your son with this.  Again, I am sorry that such a special infant has a malformation.  Let's hope that it is of the benign type.  The answer to your second question, yes you can have a muscle spasm in your GI tract.  The GI tract has a smooth muscle layer and as a muscle it can spasm.
Sincerly,
CCF Neuro[P] MD, RPS

[oney509]

A related discussion, About my unborn grandson's kidney was started.

[stuplik174]

A related discussion, cystis parencephalistis was started.