[Prenatal diagnosis of neural tube defects: Correlation between prenatal and postnatal data]

Neural tube defects (NTD) are congenital anomalies that can cause significant neurological long-term disabilities. Theses malformations are accessible to prenatal diagnosis and quite recently, to in utero repair for some myelomeningoceles. The aim of this study was to analyse the correlation between prenatal and postnatal examinations.

A descriptive retrospective monocentric study has been conducted between January 2004 and December 2014 in a tertiary care maternity. All patients who benefited a prenatal diagnosis of NTD for their foetus, and for whom postnatal data were available were included. Prenatal and postnatal data, especially type of dysraphism, levels of defect and extent, and associated anomalies were compared.

Sixty spinal dysraphisms were diagnosed antenataly. Concerning the type of dysraphism, ultrasound diagnosis was well correlated with postnatal findings (ρ=0.7048). Prenatal level and extent were correlated with postnatal data (respectively ρ=0.539 and ρ=0.562). Vertebral upper level defined by ultrasound agreed with postnatal constatations in 80.8% of cases within one vertebra, and in 84.6% of cases within two vertebras. Concerning indirect signs of spina bifida, prenatal data agreed with postnatal ones for most of them, especially for Arnold Chiari II malformation.

There is a high correlation between prenatal and postnatal data. Prenatal ultrasound seems to be efficient for description of neural tube defects and to identify foetuses for which the benefit of in utero surgery exists.