Potential pitfalls in fetal neurosonography

To present anatomic variants of the fetal brain and artifacts related to scanning techniques that could be misinterpreted as abnormalities on prenatal neurosonographic studies.

The findings were derived from fetal neurosonographic studies performed routinely from 16 to 36 weeks' gestation during the last 3 years, supervised by a sonologist specialized in neonatal cranial sonography.

The pitfalls were divided into three groups: brain parenchyma, ventricular system and choroid plexus. We provide images of these pseudolesions and clues to their differentiation from true brain pathology.

Knowledge of misleading images seen on fetal neurosonographic studies that could be misinterpreted as lesions is essential for the proper interpretation of these studies and will help avoid the use of more invasive diagnostic tests. To the best of our knowledge, the majority of the pitfalls presented here have only been described in neonates.