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Lionel W. Young, MD; James E. Crowe, MD; Thomas E. Sumner, MD

Am J Dis Child. 1978;132(8):813-814.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Cinical History.—A newborn infant boy had respiratory distress that began immediately after birth.

Physical Examination.—He weighed 1,910 g, was tachypneic, with intercostal retractions and grunting, and had a slightly scaphoid abdomen. Combined chest and abdominal roentgenograms were obtained (Fig 1 and 2).

Denouement and Discussion

Split Notochord Syndrome

The vertebral anomalies of anterior and posterior spina bifida are often accompanied by a characteristic complex of visceral and neural abnormalities. One of the embryologic explanations for this combination of anterior and posterior spina bifida is the "split notochord" theory. This theory proposes that a primitive node cell rest persiiists in the midline, producing a notochordal cleft that causes the vertebral centra to be laid down in independent halves.¹

The most common visceral anomalies present in infants and children with the split notochord syndrome are mediastinal cysts of foregut origin (neurenteric cysts) and enteric duplications, most of which arise from the small . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Radiology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, 125 DeSoto St, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 (Dr Young).

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