TITLE:
Fetal Cerebellar Vermis Assessment by MRI. What Does It Add?
AUTHORS:
Sarah M. Ragaee, Mohamed Aboul-Fotouh Mourad, Soha Talaat Hamed, Ahmed M. Abbas
KEYWORDS:
Fetal MRI, Cerebellar Vermis, Prenatal Ultrasound, Vermian Abnormali-ties, Posterior Fossa Anomalies
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Vol.9 No.9,
September
25,
2019
ABSTRACT: Background: Posterior fossa anomalies (PFAs) are considered one of the commonest brain anomalies identified by the fetal imaging techniques. The current study aims to estimate the significance of cerebellar vermis assessment by fetal MRI in fetal brain malformations. Patients and Methods: The study was conducted at a tertiary University hospital in Upper Egypt. Data were gathered prospectively from sixty pregnant women with sonographically diagnosed fetal brain malformations referred for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) between April 2015 and May 2019 followed by postpartum neonatal MRI brain examination for non-terminated and live birth cases. Results: Of the sixty fetuses with brain malformations, additional cerebellar vermis findings were seen on MRI in 10 cases (16.6%). Fetal MRI sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were 100% that were in correlation with those of prenatal ultrasound turned out to be significantly higher. Conclusion: This study recommends fetal MRI for cerebellar vermis assessment in fetal brain malformations to guide the clinical management.