Fetal MRI: normal gestational landmarks for cerebral biometry, gyration and myelination.

Purpose: Up until the last 10 years, normal cerebral gestational landmarks were assessed by ultrasonographic and fetopathologic studies. The purpose of this paper is to display the possibilities provided by fetal MRI in the evaluation of fetal cerebral biometry, normal sulcation and myelination.

Methods: Two hundred and twenty-five fetuses (with a normal brain) were studied prospectively using a standardised method.

Fetal cerebral cortex: normal gestational landmarks identified using prenatal MR imaging.

Background And Purpose: Few investigators have analyzed the MR imaging patterns of fetal gyration. Our purpose was to establish, with a large prospective series, the normal sulcation landmarks according to gestational age by using in utero MR imaging and to correlate our findings with established neuroanatomic timetables.

Methods: A standardized fetal cerebral MR examination was performed in 173 normal fetuses at 22 to 38 weeks' gestation.

[Epidural anaesthesia associated with induction of labour. A clinical study. Electronic monitoring of the physical and biological parameters (author's transl)].

73 case histories of induction of labour under epidural anaesthesia have been studied very thoroughly from the different parameters of the uterine contractions as well as the fetal heart rate and the acid base balance of the fetus. From this study it is clear that the basal tone, the intensity and the frequency of contractions and the activity of the uterus are increased in comparison with different studies of normal labour. This increase however is within physiological limits and does not change in any marked way the cardiac rhythm nor the acid base balance of the fetus.