Low-dose fetal CT for evaluation of severe congenital skeletal anomalies: preliminary experience.

Overview

Congenital skeletal abnormalities compose a heterogeneous and complex group of conditions that affect bone growth and development and result in various anomalies in shape and size of the skeleton. Prenatal sonographic diagnosis of these anomalies is challenging because of the relative rarity of each skeletal dysplasia, the multitude of differential diagnoses encountered when the bony abnormalities are identified, lack of precise molecular diagnosis and the fact that many of these disorders have overlapping features and marked phenotypic variability. The following review is a preliminary summary of our experience at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) using low-dose fetal CT in the evaluation of severe fetal osseous abnormalities.