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Updated: Aug 29, 2026
State of the Art Cranial Ultrasound Imaging in Neonates
Published on: February 2, 2015
Three-dimensional sonographic measurement of normal fetal brain volume during the second half of pregnancy
Nanette M Roelfsema1, Wim C J Hop, Simona M E Boito
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. n.roelfsema@erasmusmc.nl
Objectives:
This study was undertaken to develop a three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound method of measuring fetal brain volume.
Study Design:
Serial 3D sonographic measurements of fetal brain volume were made in 68 normal singleton pregnancies at 18 to 34 weeks of gestation. A comparison was made with fetal brain volume estimates from two-dimensional (2D) sonographic measurement of head circumference and published postmortem fetal brain weights.
Results:
Coefficient of variation for fetal brain volume (3D) caused by differences between repeated tests was 10.2% and between analyses of the same recorded volume 2.2%. Median brain volume increases from 34 mL at 18 weeks to 316 mL at 34 weeks. Median brain weight represented approximately 15% of total fetal weight. The 3D ultrasound-derived brain weight is larger than postmortem brain weight. However, this is not so for brain weight derived from total fetal weight at autopsy. A good agreement between 3D and 2D brain volume was found.
Conclusion:
Sonographic measurement of fetal brain volume demonstrated an acceptable intraobserver variability and a nearly 10-fold increase during the second half of gestation.
