Abstract: This study investigated the clinical value of prenatal magnetic resonance (MRI) technology in the diagnosis of fetal central nervous system and vertebral malformations. Selected 336 pregnant women with suspected fetal central nervous system and vertebral malformations for clinical research. All pregnant women underwent MRI scans and color Doppler ultrasound examinations. The results of fetal pathology after delivery or termination of pregnancy were used as the gold standard to judge the value of MRI prenatal screening in the diagnosis of fetal central nervous system and vertebral malformations. There was no significant difference between MRI and prenatal color Doppler ultrasound in the diagnosis of various types of fetal central nervous system developmental malformations (P＞0.05), but the overall coincidence rate of diagnosis was higher than that of prenatal color Doppler ultrasound (P＜0.05). The sensitivity of MRI for central nervous system malformations was 87.50%, the specificity was 86.36%, and the area under the curve(AUC)of ROC was 0.869. The sensitivity and specificity of color Doppler ultrasound in the diagnosis of fetal central nervous system malformations were 69.44% and 81.82%, and the AUC was 0.756. The coincidence rate of MRI in diagnosing scoliosis was higher than that of color Doppler ultrasound (P＜0.05), the sensitivity and specificity of MRI in diagnosing fetal vertebral deformity were 86.36%, the specificity was 97.45%, and the AUC was 0.919. The sensitivity of color Doppler ultrasound was 50.00%, the specificity was 81.53%, and the AUC was 0.658. MRI technology had an obvious advantages over prenatal color Doppler ultrasound in diagnosing fetal central nervous system and vertebral malformation, and it could be worthy of clinical application.

Key words: magnetic resonance imaging, diagnosis, fetus, central nervous system, vertebral body, malformation