Purpose or Case Report: Illustrate pathologies encountered in our early experience of whole body fetal micro-CT, with respect to congenital skeletal anomalies.
Methods & Materials: Micron-scale computed tomography (micro-CT) is a relatively new imaging technique that provides high resolution (voxel size <100µm³), anatomic information by taking over a thousand, 2D cone-beam projections from multiple angles around a subject specimen. It is widely used in preclinical animal studies, but with few published studies regarding human fetal imaging.
Major congenital anomalies affect 2-3% of all pregnancies with over 78% of terminations performed for central nervous system, chromosomal and multiple systemic malformations. These disorders may involve musculoskeletal deficiencies. Accurate assessment of these at post-mortem examination are important for parental counselling regarding future pregnancies. Micro CT is an ideal imaging tool to provide detailed bone structure and anatomy in the perinatal post mortem setting.
Results: This presentation will demonstrate a range of skeletal pathologies which include lethal skeletal dysplasias (e.g. osteogenesis imperfect and thanatophoric dysplasia), non-lethal dysplasias (e.g. chondrodysplasia punctata), neurological conditions (e.g. caudal regression syndrome, vertebral segmental anomalies in VACTERL, neural tube defects, anencephaly) as well as limb anomalies (e.g. limb/long bone deficiencies). Comparison with histopathology at conventional autopsy will be provided for reference
Conclusions: Micro CT is a new technique being employed in post-mortem imaging of early gestation fetuses. This presentation demonstrates the varied appearances of skeletal manifestations, the high resolution of bone structure achievable by this technique and the diagnoses we have encountered in our early experience.