Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 17, 2025
Murine Fetal Echocardiography
Published on: February 15, 2013
[Comparative evaluation of ultrasonic virtopsia and classical autopsy for antenatal fetal death]
V F Bezhenar1, L A Ivanova2, N V Belitchenko3
1First St. Petersburg State Medical University named after Acad. I.P. Pavlov, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Aim Of Study:
Comparison of the data obtained by ultrasound examination of a pregnant woman with antenatal death of the fetus and stillborn child, with the autopsy results.
Materials And Methods:
The protocols of ultrasound examinations and the autopsy protocols of 126 fetuses that died antenatally were analyzed.
Results:
In our study of 126 patients, 95 showed no structural changes either during ultrasound examination or during further pathomorphological examination. The ultrasound conclusion corresponded to the results of classical autopsy in the presence of congenital malformations in two patients. 29 pregnant women had discrepancies in the results of ultrasound examination and subsequent pathomorphological examination. At the same time, in 7 patients there was an overdiagnosis, in 22 - an underdiagnosis.
Conclusions:
Ultrasound diagnostics in cases of suspected fetal death does not allow verification of the diagnosis, ultrasound examination of a pregnant woman with antenatal fetal death and post-mortem ultrasound examination of a stillborn cannot replace autopsy, pathoanatomical and histological examinations.
