The role of magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of antenatal fetal demise: clinical cases
Korostyshevskaya A.M., Gornostaeva A.M.
Rationale. Antenatal fetal demise (AFD) is known to be a considerable problem in modern perinatal medicine, the prevention of which is complicated by its multiethiological nature. Despite advanced prenatal diagnostic methods, the cause of fetal death remains unknown in a significant number of cases. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which has high contrast and spatial resolution and allows for a detailed assessment of the condition of the fetal organs and tissues, as well as the placenta, has become increasingly important in prenatal diagnostics in recent years. The development of perinatal thanatoradiology has contributed to the data accumulation of MRI postmortem changes in the fetus and newborns, but information on MR-semiotics of AFD remains limited and fragmentary.
Case report. This article presents two clinical cases of AFD identified through prenatal MRI. In the first case fetal death diagnosed at 31 weeks of gestation was associated with a massive brain lesion, accompanied by severe obstructive hydrocephalus and secondary morphological changes in brain structures. The second case describes AFD at 23 weeks of gestation in connection with a severe combined malformation of the central nervous system. The use of quantitative and functional methods gave us opportunity to assess the volume of tissue destruction and the duration of postmortem changes. The obtained results demonstrate the high diagnostic value of MRI in identifying AFD, assessing associated morphological changes, and possible causes of death.
Conclusion. The implementation of MRI in the prenatal diagnostic algorithm can contribute to the accuracy of the identification of AFD causes, improving the planning of obstetric tactics and subsequent morphological and genetic studies.
Authors’ contributions. Korostyshevskaya A.M. – study concept and design, research conduction, article conduction; Gornostaeva A.M. – literature review, manuscript editing and formatting.
Conflicts of interest. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Funding. Funded by the Russian Science Foundation grant #25-25-00023 (https://rscf.ru/project/25-25- 00023/).
Acknowledgments. The authors thank the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation for the access to MRI equipment.
Ethical Approval. The study received approval from the Ethics Committee of the International Tomography Center at the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Science (protocol #36 от 29.02.2024).
Generative Artificial Intelligence. During article processing we used the ChatGPT language model (version 4o, OpenAI) to edit the manuscript, correct grammatical and punctuation errors and eliminate repetitions in the text. The final version of the article was fully reviewed and approved by the authors, who bear full responsibility for its content.
Patient Consent for Publication. The patients signed informed consent for the publication of their examination data and associated images.
For citation: Korostyshevskaya A.M., Gornostaeva A.M. The role of magnetic resonance imaging in
the diagnosis of antenatal fetal demise: clinical cases.
Akusherstvo i Ginekologiya/Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2026; (9): 175-181 (in Russian)
https://dx.doi.org/10.18565/aig.2026.86
Keywords
antenatal fetal demise
fetal MRI
thanatoradiology
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Received 13.02.2026
Accepted 13.04.2026
About the Authors
Aleksandra M. Korostyshevskaya, Dr. Med. Sci., Leading Researcher, International Tomographic Center, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090, Russia, Novosibirsk, Institutskaya str., 3a, +7(903)903-34-36, koro@tomo.nsc.ruAlyona M. Gornostaeva, Junior Researcher, International Tomographic Center, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090, Russia, Novosibirsk,
Institutskaya str., 3a, +7(923)113-71-41, am.popkova@yandex.ru
Corresponding author: Alyona M. Gornostaeva, am.popkova@yandex.ru
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