Minerva: March 2001

A 26 year old woman presented with positive results on a pregnancy test and an abdominal mass consistent with a 20 week pregnancy. An ultrasound scan showed a fetus of no more than 8 weeks' gestation, and this later magnetic resonance image clearly shows the fetus and a large fundafibroid. The mass continued to grow but did not interfere with fetal development; a healthy infant was delivered at term with blood loss of less than 400 ml. The fibroid regressed post partum, and the patient required no further treatment.

Following the recent flurry of press interest in deep vein thrombosis after long haul flights, a kind reader sent in his paper from 1967 listing the passengers who presented to a local hospital after a flight into London airport (The Practitioner 1967;198:668.72). Only one of the 99 patients had a deep vein thrombosis, but he also had a patent foramen ovale