Prenatal sonographic diagnosis of persistent right umbilical vein with varix

Persistence of the right umbilical vein is variably associated with life-threatening malformations of the fetal genitourinary, gastrointestinal, cardiac, and skeletal systems. Varices of the intra-abdominal umbilical vein, although not necessarily associated with other malformations, do seem to carry a risk of fetal mortality, especially if they are large or appear early during the pregnancy. We report the prenatal diagnosis of the rare combination of persistence and varix of the right umbilical vein in an otherwise healthy infant.