Four-dimensional features of fetal brain: applications to diabetes

Abstract Assessing fetal behavior is a great challenge in fetal medicine and especially to assess whether there is a difference in the behavior of fetuses of pregnant women with diabetes under treatment with insulin, compared to fetuses of pregnancies without diabetes. Kurjak's antenatal neurodevelopmental test (KANET) is a method that by application of 4D ultrasound assesses fetal behavior in a similar way that neonatologists perform a neurological assessment in newborns. Specifically, the application of KANET on diabetic pregnancies with preexisting diabetes mellitus or gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) requiring insulin appears to offer valuable information regarding the differences in fetal neurobehavior compared to otherwise low-risk pregnancies. By the application of KANET, it is shown there are differences in the fetal behavior between diabetic and nondiabetic fetuses and that nondiabetic fetuses have higher scores. The specific parameters—movements that are different between the two groups are also detected.