Ultrafast MRI of the fetus: an increasingly important tool in prenatal diagnosis of congenital anomalies.
OBJECTIVE
To demonstrate the additional utility of ultrafast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the fetus in the evaluation of sonographically detected or equivocal fetal congenital anomalies.


METHODS
Twenty five pregnant women with ultrasound detected fetal congenital anomalies underwent ultrafast fetal MRI.


RESULTS
MRI findings altered the diagnosis of two cases of giant arachnoid cyst and sizable interhemispheric cyst associated with agenesis of the corpus callosum. MRI added additional findings of occult spinal diastematomyelia in two out of four cases of Chiari/meningocele malformation. MRI revealed impaired sulcation and unilateral cleft palate in suspected case of Walker-Warburg syndrome. In the remaining 18 cases MRI confirmed the diagnosis of Meckel-Gruber syndrome in three cases, hydronephrosis in six cases, cerebral ventriculomegaly in five cases, isolated omphalocele in three cases and findings suggestive of aneuploidy in the last case.


CONCLUSIONS
Ultrasound is the screening method of choice for evaluation of the fetus. Ultrafast MRI is a complementary adjunctive modality with excellent tissue contrast that can image the fetus in multiple planes and add information in sonographically detected or equivocal congenital anomalies that may be significant to establish definitive accurate diagnosis and hence adequate management and counseling.
Hosny
Iman A
IA
Department of Radiodiagnosis Faculty of Medicine Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. imanabbas95@yahoo.com
Elghawabi
Hamed S
HS
D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity