COMPARISON OF PRENATAL ULTRASOUND AND POSTMORTEM FINDINGS IN FETUSES AND INFANTS WITH CENTRAL-NERVOUS-SYSTEM ANOMALIES

Detection of fetal developmental abnormalities by ultrasound examinati on of pregnant women has become a specialized field of medicine. Quali ty control of this field requires detailed examination of aborted fetu ses. In 408 fetuses and infants with developmental anomalies, the pren atal ultrasound findings were compared with the postmortem findings. T his study focused on 140 central nervous system (CNS) anomalies. Crite ria for inclusion were an ultrasound examination at the National Cente r for Fetal Medicine (NCFM) and an autopsy performed during the period 1985-94. Results of the ultrasound and autopsy examinations were syst ematized into six different categories. Hydrocephaly and anencephaly w ere the most frequent abnormalities, together accounting for 50% of th e CNS anomalies. In 20 cases (14%), the CNS anomalies were associated with other important anomalies or chromosomal aberrations. In 125 of t he cases (89%), there was complete concordance between the ultrasound and autopsy diagnoses. Of the 15 CNS cases with discrepancies, seven h ad nearly complete concordance; if we include these, the correlation w as 94%. In conclusion, this study confirms that developmental anomalie s in the central nervous system are frequent and that ultrasound diagn oses are in good concordance with the autopsy diagnoses.