Accuracy of ultrasonography in diagnosis of fetal central nervous system malformation

BACKGROUND Prenatal examination is an important measure for the screening and diagnosis of fetal malformations.AIM To investigate the accuracy of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of fetal central nervous system(CNS) malformations.METHODS One hundred and thirteen pregnant women suspected of having fetal CNS malformations were examined at our hospital from December 2018 to October 2020 using two-dimensional ultrasonography and three-dimensional ultrasonography, respectively.RESULTS According to the pathological results, there were 79 cases of CNS malformations and 34 cases of non-CNS malformations among the 113 pregnant women suspected of having fetal CNS malformation. Fifty-one cases of CNS malformation and 26 cases of non-CNS malformation were detected by two-dimensional ultrasonography, and 73 cases of CNS malformation and 30 cases of non-CNS malformation were detected by three-dimensional ultrasonography. The diagnostic sensitivity(92.41%) and accuracy(91.15%) of three-dimensional ultrasonography were higher than those of two-dimensional ultrasonography(64.56% and 68.14%, respectively)(P = 0.000). The specificity of three-dimensional ultrasonography(88.24%) was higher than that of two-dimensional ultrasonography(76.47%); however, the difference was not significant(P = 0.203).CONCLUSION Three-dimensional ultrasonography has high application value in the diagnosis of fetal CNS malformations. In addition, the image quality is clear, and the diagnostic sensitivity and accuracy are high.