Diagnosis of congenital abnormalities with post- mortem ultrasound in perinatal death

Purpose: To determine the sensitivity and specificity of post-mortem ultrasound in the diagnosis of major congenital abnormalities of fetuses using conventional autopsy as the standard of reference. Material and methods: All fetuses coming from terminations of pregnancy or intrauterine fetal deaths in a single institution were included. A total of 75 fetuses were included during the study period. The results of post-mortem ultrasound examinations were compared to those of conventional autopsy that served as standard of reference. Results: Gestational age of the fetuses ranged from 15 to 38 weeks gestation. A complete post-mortem ultrasound assessment was possible in all fetuses. Regarding detection of brain abnormalities, post-mortem ultrasound had a sensitivity of 81.5% or 4/5 (95% CI: 63.3-91.8%), and a specificity of 97.9% (95% CI: 89.1-99.6%). Specificities for the diagnosis of thoracic, cardiac, urinary tract, spinal and bone abnormalities were 100%. Conclusion: Post-mortem ultrasound shows high sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of congenital structural abnormalities as compared to conventional autopsy, with the exception of congenital cardiac diseases. (c) 2017 Editions francaises de radiologie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.