title: The use of in utero MR imaging to delineate developmental brain abnormalities in multifetal pregnancies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  iuMR has been shown to increase the detection rate of developmental abnormalities of the CNS, though most reports are limited to singleton pregnancies. The hypothesis tested in this study was that iuMR performed in multifetal pregnancies will show additional information about fetal CNS abnormalities in a similar proportion of cases when compared with singleton pregnancies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty women with multifetal pregnancies were recruited consecutively carrying at least 1 fetus with a suspected developmental fetal CNS abnormality on sonography. All had iuMR at the same center by using the same MR imaging protocol. When the sonography and MR imaging reports were discrepant, 1 fetomaternal expert assessed the reports independently to predict in what percentage a change in prognosis/counseling would have occurred if iuMR was included in the diagnostic pathway.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was agreement between the sonography and iuMR reports in 66% and disagreement in 34% of cases. The major cause for discrepancy was the presence or absence of the corpus callosum, which accounted for 10/17 of the disagreements. In 12/17 of the discrepant cases, the effect on management was judged to be significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that iuMR has a similar rate of discrepancy to sonography in multifetal pregnancies compared with the published data concerning singleton pregnancies. Our analysis of the effect on management shows that changes in the decision to consider termination of pregnancy would have occurred in 12/17 of the discrepant cases (ie, in 24% of our cases overall).
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of Radiology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK. p.griffiths@sheffield.ac.uk
authors.forename: P D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Griffiths
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fanou
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Reeves
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000002:abnormalities*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D011247:Pregnancy; D011272:Pregnancy, Multiple; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal; D055815:Young Adult
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