• P Montaldo, S Addison, V Oliveira, P J Lally, A M Taylor, N J Sebire, S Thayyil, and O J Arthurs.
• Centre for Perinatal Neuroscience, Imperial College London, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0HS, UK. p.montaldo@imperial.ac.uk.
• BMC Med Imaging. 2016 Apr 27; 16: 34.

BackgroundPost mortem imaging is playing an increasingly important role in perinatal autopsy, and correct interpretation of imaging changes is paramount. This is particularly important following intra-uterine fetal death, where there may be fetal maceration. The aim of this study was to investigate whether any changes seen on a whole body fetal post mortem magnetic resonance imaging (PMMR) correspond to maceration at conventional autopsy.MethodsWe performed pre-autopsy PMMR in 75 fetuses using a 1.5 Tesla Siemens Avanto MR scanner (Erlangen, Germany). PMMR images were reported blinded to the clinical history and autopsy data using a numerical severity scale (0 = no maceration changes to 2 = severe maceration changes) for 6 different visceral organs (total 12). The degree of maceration at autopsy was categorized according to severity on a numerical scale (1 = no maceration to 4 = severe maceration). We also generated quantitative maps to measure the liver and lung T2.ResultsThe mean PMMR maceration score correlated well with the autopsy maceration score (R(2) = 0.93). A PMMR score of ≥4.5 had a sensitivity of 91%, specificity of 64%, for detecting moderate or severe maceration at autopsy. Liver and lung T2 were increased in fetuses with maceration scores of 3-4 in comparison to those with 1-2 (liver p = 0.03, lung p = 0.02).ConclusionsThere was a good correlation between PMMR maceration score and the extent of maceration seen at conventional autopsy. This score may be useful in interpretation of fetal PMMR.

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