Prenatal diagnosis of fetal intracranial hemorrhage at 25 weeks of gestation.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can give further information for the prenatal diagnosis of intracranial hemorrhage, when ultrasound (US) is not conclusive.

METHODS

We report on a fetus in the 26th week of gestation with a grade-III hemorrhage in the right cerebral hemisphere, which was suspected on US examination and specified by MRI examination in a patient with pre-eclampsia.

RESULTS

Doppler measurement of the umbilical artery, which showed the absence of end diastolic velocity, was indicative of placental insufficiency. The MRI specified the findings found by US examination and confirmed the poor outcome of the fetus. Labor was induced by prostaglandins in the 27th week of gestation. Postmortem examination showed a female fetus with a grade-III intracranial hemorrhage in the center of the right hemisphere with a diameter of 4 cm. A hemorrhage was also found in the subarachnoid space and in the occipital region of the left hemisphere.

CONCLUSION

We suggest that fetuses at high risk of developing hypoxia should be sonographically evaluated and MRI should be considered when intracranial echogenicities are seen.