ABSTRACT Objective(s) This study aims to document the abdominal and pelvic anomalies that can be demonstrated using post mortem Micro‐CT, independent of whether the anomaly contributed to the main diagnosis or cause of death. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 1200 whole body post‐mortem fetal Micro‐CT scans in an unselected, consecutive cohort between 2017 and 2024. Abdominal or pelvic anomalies were categorized into internal or external anomalies. Results Overall, 277 individual abdominal/pelvic anomalies were identified in 196/1200 (16.3%) fetuses with a mean gestational age of 17 weeks (range 10–24; median 17, interquartile range 4), and a mean fetal body weight 96.5 g (range 0.25–484.2; median 48.3, interquartile range 105.6). Of these, 100/277 (36.1%) were abdominal only, 61/277 (22.0%) pelvic only, 27/277 (9.7%) were both, and 96/277 (34.7%) were external anomalies. The most common anomalies were abdominal‐pelvic wall defects 84/277 (30.3%), and renal anomalies 77/277 (27.8%), with horseshoe kidneys 16/77 (20.8%) and cystic kidneys 13/77 (16.9%) being the most common renal anomalies. Severe maceration was identified in 80 fetuses (grade 5 or 6), although imaging was still diagnostic in most cases, with only 17/1200 (1.4%) non‐diagnostic scans. Conclusion(s) Post‐mortem Micro‐CT imaging can identify a wide range of abdominal/pelvic anomalies following pregnancy loss in early gestation fetuses, even in the presence of severe maceration.
Simcock et al. (Fri,) studied this question.