Clinical Study of Fetal Neurobehavior by the Kurjak Antenatal Neurodevelopmental Test

Abstract

ABSTRACT Fetal neurology is an evolving field in prenatal diagnosis and fetal medicine with great interest. The identification and diagnosis of brain damage prenatally has been a great challenge in obstetrics for many years. Investigations of the fetal behavior in comparison with morphological studies led to the conclusion that fetal behavioral patterns directly reflect developmental and maturational processes of fetal central nervous system (CNS). Four-dimensional ultrasound (4D US) has remarkably improved the assessment of the quality of fetal spontaneous movements, and enabled a better evaluation of fetal behavior. The assessment of normal neurobehavioral development by 4D US provided the opportunity to investigate functional characteristics of the fetus that could predict neurological developmental dysfunction. Some studies have already been carried out to evaluate this new methodology in the observation of the fetal behavior during different stages of gestation, in an attempt to better understand the relationships between the maturation of the CNS of the fetus and its implications on its behavior pattern. We present a review of literature on fetal behavior by 4D US. How to cite this article Neto RM, Kurjak A, Porovic S, Stanojevic M, Gaber G. Clinical Study of Fetal Neurobehavior by the Kurjak Antenatal Neurodevelopmental Test. Donald School J Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 2017;11(4):355-361.