Three-dimensional ultrasonographic reslicing of the fetal brain to assist prenatal diagnosis of central nervous system anomalies.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of 3-dimensional ultrasonographic planar and nonplanar reslicing techniques.

METHODS

Fetuses with severe brain anomalies diagnosed by means of 2-dimensional ultrasonography were prospectively included in the study. Good-quality 3-dimensional volumes of the fetal head were obtained in each case. Subsequently, these volumes were reviewed with use of 3-dimensional extended imaging with Oblique View and DynamicMR (Medison Co, Ltd, Seoul, Korea).

RESULTS

Eight fetuses (mean gestational age, 23 weeks; range, 20-30 weeks) with the following central nervous system anomalies were examined: semilobar holoprosencephaly, absent cavum septum pellucidum, porencephaly in twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, partial agenesis of the corpus callosum, Dandy-Walker variant, open-lip schizencephaly, aneurysm of the vein of Galen, and dilated cavum vergae.

CONCLUSIONS

Planar and nonplanar reslicing of the volumes delivered informative images in any reconstructed plane. One important prerequisite, however, was the absence of acoustic shadowing during data acquisition.