Preauricular tag

Guillermina M. Ochua, MD, Ricardo De Loredo, MD, Roque A. Carpio, MD, Silvina Fernández, MD

Hospital Privado del Sur, Servicio de Ecografìa, Las Heras 164, Bahía Blanca, Código postal: 8000 Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Case report

This is a case of a 29-year-old patient, G1 P0, with non-contributive personal or familial history.

Her pregnancy was uneventful, she did not report any drug use.

Blood tests for HIV, TORCH, hepatitis B and C were all negative.

Ultrasound scan at 28 weeks of gestation revealed the following ultrasound finding. No other anomalies were detected.

The final diagnosis was preauricular tag.  

The isolated preauricular tags were thought to be associated with urinary tract abnormalities. Some recent studies concluded that the prevalence of renal malformations is not any higher than in a normal population unless accompanied by other systemic malformations.[1,2]

The preauricular tags can be associated with several genetic conditions such as: Oculoauriculovertebral dysplasia, Chromosome arm 11q duplication syndrome, Chromosome arm 4p deletion syndrome, Chromosome arm 5p deletion syndrome, and Goldenhar syndrome (thus try to obtain a frontal 3D rendering to assess for facial hemi-microsomia.)

Image: 3D image of the fetal face, note a preauricular tag (arrow).

Preauricular_skin_tag
Preauricular_skin_tag_1a

References:

1. Deshpandel SA,Watson H. Renal ultrasonography not required in babies with isolated minor ear anomalies. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed 2006;91:F29-F30.
2. Tombesi M, Alconcher L.¿Deben realizarse las ecografías renal y vesical en pacientes con mamelones preauriculares? Revista Argentina de Radiología 2008; 72 (2):165-168.

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