"Our goal is to illustrate for heath care professionals around the world what they could expect to see with a Zika infection during pregnancy," Dr. Deborah Levine
Our Republican congressional representatives and Senators need to educate themselves about the ravages of the Zika virus and to fully fund the Centers for Disease Control request for 1.9 billion dollars they say that they needed back in February of this year. Instead, Congress has stalled, added poison pills to any clean bill, and taken endless vacations one of which they are enjoying at this very moment. Despite the anguished pleas from medical researchers, parents and anybody who has a heart, Republicans continue to refuse to return to Washington for even one day to approve the desperately needed funds. Their inaction is beyond cruel and it is despicable. Now Zika is spreading across Florida from Miami to Tampa. What could have been prevented has now come to pass.
A series of images and videos were published by the Journal Radiology on Tuesday. They illustrate the horror of how Zika infection can damage fetal brain development as well as joint contractures.
Dr. Levine has stated that microcephaly is just the tip of the iceberg as to what happens to the fetal brain. Other problems are illustrated in the study (link in above paragraph) and the study abstract at the bottom of this story.
This baby was born with a normal-size head. But MRI scans show the brain is filled with fluid and little brain tissue. The cortex of the brain is normally folded, but in this case, the cortex is smooth.NPR reports on the study:
In almost all cases, the babies had damage in the cortex, the outer layer of the brain that controls a huge number of high-level functions like problem-solving, emotion and language. The cortex contains many folds and gives our brains its characteristic shape. But in these babies, oftentimes, the cortex was smooth, Levine says.
"These babies will not be able to behave normally after birth," Levine says. "The question is will they be able to see, hear and move normally."
All the babies had scars in their brains, called calcifications. These are a telltale sign of an infection, Levine says, and show where the virus has injured the brain — or stopped its development.
The babies also had damage in the brain stem, which controls involuntary actions, like breathing and heartbeat, as well as injuries in the cerebellum, which coordinates muscle activity and voluntary movements.
Zika infections during gestation can damage other parts of the body besides the brain. In this case, the baby was born with severe stiffness in the joints, which keeps the baby from straightening arms and legs normally. The baby's brain shows the telltale sign of an infection: white dots called calcification.Since pleas for compassion are ignored by the GOP, perhaps they might consider the long term fiscal costs of their inaction to government at every single level. But this malfeasance on the part of the GOP has always been about Mitch McConnell and the rest of the GOP to never give President Obama a “win” on anything. They should not be rewarded with a return to power in which they can continue to wreak the havoc they have unleashed on this country. Shame on every last one of them.
From the Radiology journal introduction:
Much has been written recently regarding Zika virus in pregnancy and the increased risk of microcephaly in fetuses exposed to the virus. The outbreak of infection in Brazil, especially in the northeast part of the country (1), has been of particular concern. The virus has been found in the fluids of pregnant mothers and during autopsy in the brains of neonates with microcephaly (2–5). Much of the concern in the media regarding the teratogenicity of Zika virus infection has focused on brain findings of microcephaly. However, as documented in many case series, there are a variety of brain abnormalities that can be found in fetuses exposed to intrauterine Zika virus infection (2–11). These include abnormalities in ventricular size, gray and white matter volume loss, brainstem abnormalities, and calcifications.
Although the current outbreak has centered in Brazil, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are currently 51 countries or territories in which active transmission of Zika virus has been reported (12). It is important for radiologists to understand the type of abnormalities associated with congenital Zika virus infection to aid in recognition of disease and appropriate counseling of patients. The purpose of this special report is to document the imaging findings associated with congenital Zika virus infection as found in patients seen at the Instituto de Pesquisa in Campina Grande State Paraiba (IPESQ) in northeastern Brazil.
Fetal and postnatal images in the case of an 18-year-old pregnant woman initially seen for a rash at 12 weeks of gestation, with confirmed Zika virus infection. Signs of joint contractures were identified at US at 17 weeks, but head circumference was in the normal range, then decreased to the 15th percentile at 21 weeks and was below the 3rd percentile at subsequent scans at 24 and 36 weeks (19.0 cm and 25.0 cm, respectively). (a) Axial transabdominal US performed at 36 weeks shows ventriculomegaly, calcifications in the thalamus and basal ganglia, and enlarged cisterna magna. (b) Soft-tissue, (c) body bone reconstruction, and (d, e) axial postmortem CT images show an abnormal profile, moderate ventriculomegaly, parenchymal atrophy, splaying of the cerebellar hemispheres, inferior vermian hypoplasia, and calcifications in the subcortical white matter, thalamus, and basal ganglia. The corpus callosum is not visualized. The gyral pattern is abnormally smooth for a term neonate. The postnatal bone reconstruction image showed the severe joint contractures, similar to those observed on (f) a photograph of the neonate.