Normal infant brain anatomy: correlated real-time sonograms and brain specimens.

ABSTRACT

An investigation of the identifiable real-time sonographic features of the normal infant brain in the horizontal, coronal, inclined coronal, and midsagittal planes was undertaken. Correlations were made of sonograms of intact brains in vitro, corresponding brain sections, and sonograms in vivo. A large number of anatomic structures could be consistently depicted including cisterns, fissures, faix cerebri, tentorium cerebelli, ventricles, brainstem, cerebellum, basal ganglia, thalami, and corpus callosum. Pulsations of intracranial arteries, visible by real-time sonography, were of considerable help in identifying various structures. The investigation provides a reference of sonographic anatomy of the brain displayed in four clinically useful imaging planes.