RESUMO
Central nervous system (CNS) malformations represent 1% of all births. For this reason, efforts are being made to increase detection of such anomalies prenatally. Consequently, a detailed assessment of the fetal nervous system in the first trimester of pregnancy is no longer a utopia as this kind of evaluation can detect severe malformation such as acrania, neural tube defects, holoprosencephaly or can draw attention regarding to anomalies currently detected in the second trimester due to certain markers of diagnosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included 1376 pregnant women with gestational ages between 11 and 14 weeks, who were referred to our unit for sonographic evaluation. We analyzed in all patients the fetal brain in axial and mid-sagittal views, assessing markers like intracranial translucency, brainstem/brainstem-occipital bone (BS/BSOB) ratio, choroid plexus (CP/HA) ratio, the octopus sign in order to detect as many anomalies in the first trimester of pregnancy. RESULTS: We detected 6 CNS anomalies during our search. All markers assessed were abnormal in all pathological cases. CONCLUSION: A detailed assessment of the fetal brain is recommended at 11-14 weeks because the earlier the diagnosis is confirmed, the lower the chances of obstetrical, psychological complications to supervene.
