Spontaneous Intra Uterine Fetal Death Clinical Trial
Official title:
Comparative Evaluation of IRM and Autopsy in the Evaluation of Intra Uterine Fetal Death.
Fetal intra uterine death is a rare event (incidence 2/1000 births) , unexpected and
psychologically painful for the couple and the healthcare team. In this difficult context,
it is essential to understand the etiology of death to guide the management of subsequent
pregnancies. Among the investigations, foetopathologic examination is essential, but the
examination of the brain is not possible in more than half of the cases due to the cerebral
maceration due to the incompressible delay between death and expulsion.
The use of MRI as a diagnostic tool fetal post- mortem " virtual autopsy " performed before
expulsion of the fetus is interesting because it would permit to obtain a macroscopic
examination of the fetal brain, archivable, and a gain concerning the diagnosis. Thus, a
normal MRI will exclude cerebral anatomical abnormality , stroke or bleeding . If MRI
abnormalities are found , it will not only guide the foetopathologic review, but mainly to
guide the etiology . On the other hand , it is a non-invasive tool and acceptability by the
couple would be better than autopsy which is often refused by the couple in this difficult
psychological context.
In this study , MRI will be given in addition to conventional autopsy in the painful waiting
time between the time of diagnosis of death and expulsion without delaying care . If this
study is validated , MRI may be systematically proposed in this indication or alternative to
autopsy when it will be refused by the parents.
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