ArticleThe Lancet. Child & adolescent health2020
Accuracy of in-utero MRI to detect fetal brain abnormalities and prognosticate developmental outcome: postnatal follow-up of the MERIDIAN cohort.
Article in The Lancet. Child & adolescent health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Neonatal neurocritical care considerations for prenatally identified neurological disorders.Pediatric research · 2026Review
- The Role of Fetal MRI in the Evaluation of Ventriculomegaly: A Scoping Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- An end-to-end pipeline for automated fetal brain segmentation and biometry from 3D SSFP MRI.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Fetal intracerebral hemorrhage: review of the literature and practice considerations.Pediatric research · 2025Review
- The fetal neurologist: Strategies to improve training, practice, and clinical care.Developmental medicine and child neurology · 2025Review
- Fetal neuroimaging applications for diagnosis and counseling of brain anomalies: Current practice and future diagnostic strategies.Seminars in fetal & neonatal medicine · 2024Review
- Reliability and Feasibility of Low-Field-Strength Fetal MRI at 0.55 T during Pregnancy.Radiology · 2023Article
- Monkeypox and Pregnancy: Latest Updates.Viruses · 2022Review
- A Novel Framework for Abnormal Risk Classification over Fetal Nuchal Translucency Using Adaptive Stochastic Gradient Descent Algorithm.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- An ode to fetal, infant, and toddler neuroimaging: Chronicling early clinical to research applications with MRI, and an introduction to an academic society connecting the field.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2022Review
- CNS Malformations in the Newborn.Maternal health, neonatology and perinatology · 2022Review
- Long-term follow-up in a cohort of children with isolated corpus callosum agenesis at fetal MRI.Annals of clinical and translational neurology · 2021Article
- Dural Sinus Arteriovenous Malformation in the Fetus. Case Report and Discussion of the Literature.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Prognostic Accuracy of Fetal MRI in Predicting Postnatal Neurodevelopmental Outcome.AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology · 2020Article
- Top ten discoveries of the year: Neurodevelopmental disorders.Free neuropathology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn utero MRI (iuMRI) detects fetal brain abnormalities more accurately than ultrasonography and provides additional clinical information in around half of pregnancies. We aimed to study whether postnatal neuroimaging after age 6 months changes the diagnostic accuracy of iuMRI and its ability to predict developmental outcome.
methodsFamilies enrolled in the MERIDIAN study whose child survived to age 3 years were invited to have a case note review and assessment of developmental outcome with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, or both. A paediatric neuroradiologist, masked to the iuMRI results, reviewed the postnatal neuroimaging if the clinical report differed from iuMRI findings. Diagnostic accuracy was recalculated. A paediatric neurologist and neonatologist categorised participants' development as normal, at risk, or abnormal, and the ability of iuMRI and ultrasonography to predict developmental outcome were assessed.
findings210 participants had case note review, of whom 81 (39%) had additional investigations after age 6 months. The diagnostic accuracy of iuMRI remained higher than ultrasonography (proportion of correct cases was 529 [92%] of 574 vs 387 [67%] of 574; absolute difference 25%, 95% CI 21 to 29; p<0·0001). Developmental outcome data were analysed in 156 participants, and 111 (71%) were categorised as normal or at risk. Of these 111 participants, prognosis was normal or favourable for 56 (51%) using ultrasonography and for 76 (69%) using iuMRI (difference in specificity 18%, 95% CI 7 to 29; p=0·0008). No statistically significant difference was seen in infants with abnormal outcome (difference in sensitivity 4%, 95% CI -10 to 19; p=0·73).
interpretationiuMRI remains the optimal tool to identify fetal brain abnormalities. It is less accurate when used to predict developmental outcome, although better than ultrasonography for identifying children with normal outcome. Further work is needed to determine how the prognostic abilities of iuMRI can be improved.
fundingNational Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.