Comparison of fetal biometric values with sonographic and 3D reconstruction MRI in term gestations

Abstract

Objective: We sought to compare the fetal biometric values head and abdominal circumferences, biparietal and occipital-frontal diameters, and left and right ventricular atrial diameters obtained with contemporaneous sonography and 3D MRI reconstructions in term pregnancies.

Subjects and methods: A total of 107 nulliparous women evaluated as having uncomplicated pregnancies and scheduled for induction at 42 completed weeks gave their informed consent and underwent MRI and sonography within 3 hours of each other. Two single-shot fast spin-echo MRI sequences were performed with 7- and 4-mm slice thicknesses and no gap. A single observer performed MRI postprocessing to obtain biometric values. A single sonographer using a 3- to 5-MHz curvilinear transducer performed transabdominal sonography. Concordance correlation and Bland-Altman analysis of differences were performed.

Results: Concordance correlation was poor for both right (0.024) and left (0.005) ventricular atrial diameters. There were moderate concordance correlations for head (0.56) and abdominal (0.53) circumferences and biparietal diameter (0.61). Occipital-frontal diameter had fair correlation (0.27).

Conclusion: Comparison between contemporaneous sonographic and 3D reconstructed MR images at late gestational ages shows acceptable correlation between the two techniques for head circumference, abdominal circumference, and biparietal diameter.