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Updated: Aug 7, 2026
Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Chronic Spinal Cord Compression
Published on: May 7, 2019
Post-mortem MRI of the foetal spine and spinal cord
E Widjaja1, E H Whitby, M Cohen
1Academic Section of Radiology, Sheffield Children's Hospital, Sheffield, UK. elysa.widjaja@sickkids.ca
Aims:
To compare the findings of post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the foetal spine with autopsy with a view to using post-mortem MRI as an alternative or adjunct to autopsy, particularly in foetal and neonatal cases.
Materials And Methods:
The brains and spines of 41 foetuses, with a gestational age range of 14-41 weeks, underwent post-mortem MRI before autopsy. Post-mortem MRI of the brain consisted of T2-weighted sequences in three orthogonal planes and MRI of the spine consisted of T2-weighted sequence in the sagittal and axial planes in all cases and coronal planes in selected cases.
Results:
Thirty of 41 (78%) foetal spines were found to be normal at autopsy and on post-mortem MRI. Eleven of 41 (22%) foetal spines were abnormal: eight foetuses had myelomeningocoeles and Chiari 2 deformities, one foetus had limited dorsal myeloschisis, one foetus had caudal regression syndrome, and one had diastematomyelia. The post-mortem MRI findings concurred with the autopsy findings in 10/11 of the abnormal cases, the disagreement being the case of diastematomyelia that was shown on post-mortem MRI but was not diagnosed at autopsy.
Conclusions:
In this series, post-mortem MRI findings agreed with the autopsy findings in 40/41(98%) cases and in one case the post-mortem MRI demonstrated an abnormality not demonstrated at autopsy.
