Abstract
iuMR has been shown to increase the detection rate of developmental abnormalities of the CNS, though most reports are limited to singleton pregnancies. The hypothesis tested in this study was that iuMR performed in multifetal pregnancies will show additional information about fetal CNS abnormalities in a similar proportion of cases when compared with singleton pregnancies. Fifty women with multifetal pregnancies were recruited consecutively carrying at least 1 fetus with a suspected developmental fetal CNS abnormality on sonography. All had iuMR at the same center by using the same MR imaging protocol. When the sonography and MR imaging reports were discrepant, 1 fetomaternal expert assessed the reports independently to predict in what percentage a change in prognosis/counseling would have occurred if iuMR was included in the diagnostic pathway. There was agreement between the sonography and iuMR reports in 66% and disagreement in 34% of cases. The major cause for discrepancy was the presence or absence of the corpus callosum, which accounted for 10/17 of the disagreements. In 12/17 of the discrepant cases, the effect on management was judged to be significant. We conclude that iuMR has a similar rate of discrepancy to sonography in multifetal pregnancies compared with the published data concerning singleton pregnancies. Our analysis of the effect on management shows that changes in the decision to consider termination of pregnancy would have occurred in 12/17 of the discrepant cases (ie, in 24% of our cases overall).
Highlights
AND PURPOSE: iuMR has been shown to increase the detection rate of developmental abnormalities of the CNS, though most reports are limited to singleton pregnancies
We conclude that iuMR has a similar rate of discrepancy to sonography in multifetal pregnancies compared with the published data concerning singleton pregnancies
Our analysis of the effect on management shows that changes in the decision to consider termination of pregnancy would have occurred in 12/17 of the discrepant cases
Summary
Fifty women with multifetal pregnancies were recruited consecutively carrying at least 1 fetus with a suspected developmental fetal CNS abnormality on sonography. When the sonography and MR imaging reports were discrepant, 1 fetomaternal expert assessed the reports independently to predict in what percentage a change in prognosis/counseling would have occurred if iuMR was included in the diagnostic pathway. Entrance criteria were: multi-fetal pregnancy, suspected developmental abnormality of the CNS of 1 or more fetuses on ultrasound, referral to our center at 18 weeks gestational age or later. No case reported in this study has been used in our group’s earlier publications on diagnostic accuracy assessment on iuMR, which described singleton pregnancies.[2,3] We stress that fetuses suspected of having acquired pathology (on the basis of twin/twin transfusion or death of a co-twin, for example) were not included.
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