Category: F

Frontofacionasal dysplasia (FFND) is characterized by severe abnormalities of the skull and face. Symptoms include facial asymmetry, coloboma of the iris and retina, malformation of the eyelids, narrowing of the palpebral fissures, ocular hypertelorism, telecanthus, limbic dermoid of the eye, midface hypoplasia, anomalies of the corpus callosum, cleft lip and palate, deformed nostrils, and multiple…

Frey’s syndrome is a rare neurological disorder resulting from injury or surgery near the parotid glands, damaging the facial nerve and resulting in facial flushing during mastication and possibly profuse sweating, particularly while ingesting hot, spicy, or acidic foods. Sweating and/or flushing of the skin overlying the parotid gland that occurs after chewing or eating…

Freeman-Sheldon syndrome, also known as craniocarpotarsal dysplasia or whistling face syndrome, is a hereditary disorder with autosomal dominant transmission. The disorder manifests at birth and is characterized with a masklike “whistling” face, hypoplastic alae nasi, ulnar deviation of the hands, flexion contractures of the fingers, and clubfeet. Freeman-Sheldon syndrome is an uncommon congenital disorder characterized…

Fountain syndrome, which is characterized by an association between mental retardation, sensorineural deafness, coarse facies, and skeletal abnormalities, was first described in 1974. Fountain syndrome is an extremely rare disorder, and the prevalence is unknown. Only seven cases have been documented at this time. The occurrence of this syndrome in siblings of normal parents indicates…

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva syndrome (FOPS) is a rare hereditary connective tissue disorder. Its salient features include shortening of the big toe and swellings in tendons and other fibrous membranes in muscles of the neck, back, upper arm and upper leg (fibrodysplasia). The swellings eventually metamorphose into bony deposits within muscle and can therefore cause severe…

Fetal warfarin syndrome, also known as fetal anticoagulant syndrome, DiSala syndrome, fetal coumarin syndrome, or warfarin embryopathy, is the result of teratogenic effects of the anticoagulant warfarin when taken by women during pregnancy (National Library of Medicine. Warfarin is a coumarin derivative that is used to treat clotting disorders such as phlebitis and as an…

Fetal valproate syndrome (FVS) is caused by exposure to the anticonvulsant drug (AED) valproic acid (trade name Depakene, Depakote, among others). Valproic acid is a pre¬ natal teratogen, and a small percentage of women who take the drug in the first trimester of pregnancy will have off-spring with one or more signs of the syndrome.…

Trimethadione and its congener paratrimethadione are highly teratogenic. Offspring of mothers treated with either drug during pregnancy are likely to show one or more of a variety of abnormalities.  In one review cited of pregnancies in women taking these drugs, about 25% spontaneously aborted and 83% of live births had one or more malformations, several…

Rubella, or German measles, is a communicable RNA virus whose effects, including rash and fever, are generally mild when contracted in later childhood or adulthood. However, if contracted by a pregnant woman, rubella may cross the placental barrier and cause fetal death or serious deformities in her offspring. A congenital maternal infection, it is a…

Fetal hydantoin syndrome (FHS) is caused by the anticonvulsant drug (AED) phenytoin (Dilantin). Phenytoin is a prenatal teratogen, causing a variety of physical defects, including infant failure to thrive, dysmorphic facies and other physical abnormalities, growth deficiency, and mental retardation, usually mild. The effects, particularly craniofacial, of prenatal exposure to phenytoin are so similar to…