Researchers are not convinced that at 70 percent, a standard ultrasound is enough to accurately diagnose brain defects in the developing fetus. This is where the iuMRI comes in because a team of researchers from The University of Sheffield, the University of Newcastle, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham Women's Foundation Trust, and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust insist that mothers whose ultrasounds reflect anomalies get an additional iuMRI to ensure diagnosis accuracy.
Ultrasound scans are a standard for most expecting mothers especially after the outbreak of the Zika Virus that has been proven to cause microcephaly among unborn babies. At 8-14 weeks and again at 18-21 weeks, mothers get to take a peek at their children and see if they are developing properly. This is usually the moment when some expecting parents get to hear whether or not their child has any developmental problems especially in the brain. But just how accurate are ultrasounds?
A cohort study funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment Programme studied 570 cases of women whose unborn babies were found to have fetal brain abnormality detected by a standard ultrasound. Participants were divided into two groups depending on the period of time when the abnormality was detected by an ultrasound, and less than 14 days later had the iuMRI.
The basic results showed that diagnostic accuracy improved by 23 percent among the group of women whose ultrasound detected abnormalities at 18-24 weeks, and by 29 percent in the 28 weeks and older group, both with a 95 percent Confidence Interval (CI). Overall, the 93 percent diagnostic accuracy for the ultrasound combined with iuMRI surpassed the 68 percent diagnostic accuracy for ultrasound alone.
With these results, the researchers propose that any fetus with a suspected brain abnormality should undergo an iuMRI before definitive counseling or even considering abortion, as according to BBC NEWS, abortion cases saw an increase from 25 percent with just the ultrasound to 36 percent with the extra scanning. Nonetheless, it is also important to note that not all results showed a worsening in the prognosis. Among 26 of the cases in which an ultrasound reported a "Poor" prognosis, the additional iuMRI inproved to "Normal" in four cases and even to "Favourable" in six.
The stunning spike in diagnostic accuracy could mean a dramatic change in pre-natal health, fetal medicine and preparation for both the unborn child and expecting parents. However, even with these astoundingly accurate results, researchers agree that confirmation bias, a lack in the variety of their demographic as well as continuous fetal brain development is a few of the study's limitations.
