Prenatal diagnosis of diastematomyelia

Introduction Diastematomyelia, also termed split cord malformation, is a form of occult spinal dysraphism characterized by a cleft in the spinal cord. Prenatal diagnosis of this anomaly is possible by ultrasonography (US), and fetal MRI can be used to diagnose the type of diastematomyelia precisely. Diastematomyelia can be isolated or associated with other dysraphisms, segmental anomalies of the vertebral bodies, or visceral malformations (horseshoe or ectopic kidney, utero-ovarian malformation, and anorectal malformation). We present three cases of fetal diastematomyelia investigated using a multimodal prenatal work-up (US, MRI, 3D-CT).