LOW-FIELD DEDICATED MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING - A POTENTIAL TOOL FORASSISTING PERINATAL AUTOPSY

Although the practice of perinatal autopsy has increased in recent yea rs, examination of the fetus and especially of the fetal brain during the first trimester or the beginning of the second trimester remains d ifficult. Postmortem high-resolution images of the brain of a normal a nd an abnormal fetus of the same gestational age (22 weeks) were obtai ned with a low-field (0.1 T) dedicated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI ) system. We demonstrated that a small MRI machine supplemented data f rom classical necropsy and may help in the interpretation of in utero ultrasound and magnetic resonance images for the antenatal diagnosis o f fetal malformations.