An ‘unborn twin’ has been discovered in the brain of a one-year-old. (Avatar)
In China’s Shanghai, an ‘unborn twin’ was discovered in the brain of a one-year-old, according to a study in the journal neurology. The finding adds to a number of rare cases of a condition known as ‘fetus within a fetus’, in which twins are conjoined in the mother’s womb but only one develops.
The study said the child was taken to the hospital after having problems with motor function and an enlarged head. The twins’ developing fetuses were discovered by doctors inside the host child’s brain. The study added: “One intraventricular fetus, a twin chorionic malformation, was identified in a 1-year-old girl with motor delay and enlarged head circumference.” Furthermore, a genomic scan showed that the fetus was the child’s twin.
The term ‘parasitic twin’ is also used to describe this condition. Such cases begin to appear during the first trimester of pregnancy, according to a report in IFL Science. It occurs when a group of cells formed by the fertilization of a female egg and a male sperm does not divide properly. Then, one of the young embryos is surrounded by the other. It couldn’t grow while surrounded by the other twin’s replicating cells, but it “lived” on its blood supply.
The study further states: “The conjoined sections develop into the host fetus’s forebrain and encase other embryos during neural plate folding.”
However, this is not the first time such an incident has occurred. The belly of an Egyptian teenager contained a fetus that had been there for 16 years when it was found there in 1997. Not only that, but last November, eight embryos were removed from a child’s stomach. 21-day-old newborn in Jharkhand’s Ranchi.
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