Correlation of the neurodevelopmental features and fetal bain magnetic resonance volume measurements in patients with ventriculomegaly

Correlation of the Neurodevelopmental Features and Fetal Brain Magnetic Resonance Volume Measurements in Patients with VentriculomegalyVentriculomegaly is the most common finding of brain development disorders and the most common central nervous system anomaly detected by ultrasonography. Various researches are performed to determine the prognosis of ventriculomegaly. But only a few of them investigate the effect of ventricular and parenchymal volumes on prognosis.The aim of this study is to compare the prognosis of mild and severe ventriculomegaly with the supratentorial cerebral paranchimal and ventricular volumes and to establish the value of volumetric measurements.39 fetuses with gestational age range of 17 to 36 weeks had sonographically detected ventriculumegaly and reffered for MRI included in our study.Supratentorial cerebral paranchimal and ventricular volumes were measured. Ventricular to paranchimal volume ratios and ventricular assymetry percentages were calculated. Prognosis of these fetuses were compared with these values.There were no statisticly significant correlation between the ventricular volumes and the prognosis of the fetuses. But statisticly significant correlation between paranchimal volumes and the prognosis was determined. Both the fetuses with poor prognosis and with poor prognostic factors had significantly higher ventricular to paranchimal volume ratios. Ventricular assymetry percentages of the fetuses with assymetric ventriculomegaly was significantly higher than the fetuses with symmetric ventriculomegali.Fetuses with severe ventriculomegali did not have lower paranchimal volumes while the fetuses with poor prognosis had indicating that measurement of ventricular dimention is not sufficent to evaluate ventriculomegali, but the paranchimal volume must be measured. Ventricular to paranchimal volume ratio is an important prognostic factor. Ventricular assymetry percentage appears to be a kuantitativ and dependable criterion of ventricular assymetri.Our study indicates that volumetric measurements performed by fetal MRI are reliable indicaters of prognosis of ventriculomegaly. But more researches with larger groups are needed to determine the prognostic indexes.