title: Magnetic resonance imaging of fetal cerebellar development.
abstract: In the last few years fetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been proposed as a second level technique in the evaluation of fetal brain anomalies. It has been demonstrated that MRI is highly accurate in illustrating the morphologic changes of developing brain and fetal brain abnormalities being a useful procedure when ultrasonography is inconclusive or doubtful. Starting from the 19-20 weeks gestational age (GA), MRI can reliably depict fetal brain anatomy and locating pathology, offering a robust and reliable tool in the assessment of fetal CNS diseases. In this review both in vivo MRI quantitative and qualitative data about fetal cerebellar development are presented and compared with ultrasonography data. Fetal cerebellar development is gradual, steady, and largely comparable to the development of the supratentorial brain. Archicerebellar (flocculo-nodular lobe) and paleocerebellar (vermis) structures develop first, whereas neocerebellum (cerebellar hemispheres) develop slowly and largely after birth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Neuroradiology, Children's Hospital V. Buzzi, Milan, Italy. ftriulzi@icp.mi.it
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Triulzi
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Parazzini
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Righini
mesh_terms: D002531:Cerebellum / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000196:embryology*; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D014463:Ultrasonography