Meet Leonardo and Cesare: Twins Treated in Utero with Focused Ultrasound
Key Points
- An Italian couple shares their story of taking part in a focused ultrasound clinical trial to treat twin-twin transfusion syndrome.
- The boys are now three years old and meeting developmental milestones.
An Italian couple, Martina and Claudio, discovered they were expecting twins in 2023.
Claudio shares: “In early February, Martina took a genetic test and had an ultrasound evaluation. Doctors found a discrepancy between the sizes of the two embryos. We were worried.”
In the coming weeks, they learned that the twins suffered from twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). TTTS is a rare condition where blood passes unevenly between twin fetuses sharing a placenta causing serious problems for both. The couple refused to accept the treatment option of terminating the pregnancy or sacrificing one twin.
“We wanted to keep both twins. The doctor in Milan told us there was a clinical trial in London that we could try to participate in.”
The couple traveled to London the very next morning. The focused ultrasound treatment took about 90 minutes, after which the physician was able to assess immediate improved blood flow in both umbilical cords.
“We learned that the condition was improving about one hour after treatment, and that continued throughout the pregnancy. There was only one kilo of a difference between the twins, which is great.”
After a few days of continued monitoring and improvement, they were able to return to Italy. Martina delivered the twin boys at 30 weeks, and after spending six weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit, Leonardo and Cesare went home.
“The boys are perfect. At one year old, they were hitting the same development milestones.”
Now, the family shares that they recently celebrated the boys’ third birthday.
“The children are still doing very well and growing up healthy. Leonardo had retinopathy of prematurity, which commonly affects babies born early. He had to have laser eye surgery and now wears glasses, but apart from that, they’re both doing very well.
Claudio and Martina wanted to share their story to help other parents facing this tough diagnosis.
“Awareness in important. Too many parents either don’t know about other treatment options or wait until it is too late. We’d like to thank the Foundation once again for everything you’ve done to make this technology available to us.”
The Foundation funded the clinical trial at Imperial College London, which was led by Professor Christoph Lees, MD, FRCOG. The results were recently published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
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