Fetal neurology: Volume I

摘要

One of the most exciting fields in advanced fetal and neonatal medicine must be that of fetal neurology. For centuries, different approaches have been performed in the various disciplines of neu-roembryology, neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, pathophysiology and neuroimaging. Pioneering efforts during the last 20 years have improved remarkably. As expectant parental anxiety has been increasing with regard to having a healthy baby with normal neurological function, there is now great demand for accurate prenatal central nervous system (CNS) diagnoses because the fetal brain is key to each individual future life. Therefore, ethics is an essential dimension of the management of pregnancies complicated by a neurologic anomaly (Chapter 1). More than 99% of the human neocortex is fashioned during intrauterine life, resulting in the fascinating diversity of fetal functions and activities. For understanding fetal and neonatal brain structure and function, knowledge of neurophysiology is essential (Chapter 2).