[Prenatal diagnosis of several hereditary skin diseases].

Twenty-two control women and 5 women at risk for delivering a baby with Brocq's ichthyosiform erythroderma or fatal epidermolysis bullosa were investigated in order to make prenatal diagnosis of inherited fetal skin diseases. Fetal skin abnormalities were detected in 3 of the 5 high-risk patients, and their pregnancies were terminated. There was a spontaneous abortion with a normal fetus in 1 case. In one woman, pregnancy progressed to term delivery of a normal girl. Methodologic aspects of obtaining fetal skin samples and the results of their morphologic studies are discussed.