Three-dimensional ultrasonographic reslicing of the fetal brain to assist prenatal diagnosis of central nervous system anomalies

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of 3-dimensional ultrasonographic planar and nonplanar reslicing techniques. METHODS: Fetuses with severe brain anomalies diagnosed by means of 2-dimensional ultrasonography were prospectively included in the study. Good-quality 3-dimensional volumes of the fetal head were obtained in each case. Subsequently, these volumes were reviewed with use of 3-dimensional extended imaging with Oblique View and DynamicMR (Medison Co, Ltd, Seoul, Korea). RESULTS: Eight fetuses (mean gestational age, 23 weeks; range, 20-30 weeks) with the following central nervous system anomalies were examined: semilobar holoprosencephaly, absent cavum septum pellucidum, porencephaly in twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, partial agenesis of the corpus callosum, Dandy-Walker variant, open-lip schizencephaly, aneurysm of the vein of Galen, and dilated cavum vergae. CONCLUSIONS: Planar and nonplanar reslicing of the volumes delivered informative images in any reconstructed plane. One important prerequisite, however, was the absence of acoustic shadowing during data acquisition.