Abstract： Objective: To investigate the role of super-fast and high-resolution MRI in vivo and in vitro fetus confirmed by pathological autopsy. Methods: Fifty mid-trimester fetuses which were suspected central nervous system abnormalities by B mode ultrasound undertook MRI scans in vivo within 48 hours after ultrasound. The fetuses were scanned with 1.5T, Philips, Balance-Fast Field Echo(B-FFE) and half-fourier acquisition singo-shot T2W-DRIVE， in vivo. Ten of them took MRI scans in vitro within 2 hours after induced labor then autopsy. The post-mortem MRI sequences were susceptibility weighted imaging(SWI)。Two fetus were confirmed abnormalities in brain and 8 were body malformation after autopsy. The findings of ultrasound, prenatal and post-mortem MRI were contrasted with autopsy as a retrospective study.Results: There is no artifact in all 50 prenatal MR images. The cortical and subcortical structures were clear with good quality for diagnosis. Ultrasound showed superiority in manifesting the diameter of brain structure but insufficient to show contrast of fetal brain parenchymal fraction, cortical lays and corpus callosum. Both prenatal and postnatal MRI showed corpus callosum clearer and diagnosed the brain abnormalities more correct than ultrasound. In the cases that diagnosed by ultrasound manifested ventriculomegaly, the MRI in vivo supplied some clues of etiology (such as the sign of callosal agenesis, Dandy-Walker syndrome). The MRI in vivo and in vitro showed no significant difference in the diagnosis of fetal central nervous system abnormalities (p>0.05). In 2 cases, one was callosal agenesis and the other was Dandy-Walker syndrome which were consistent with the prenatal MRI. The post-mortem MRI showed entire callosal agenesis and confirmed by autopsy. Conclusions: Super-fast and high-resolution MRI shows the fetal brain parenchymal fraction, ventricular system and other brain structures clearly in vivo. MRI in vivo shows the fetal brain malformation clearly, and MRI in vitro almost gets the same efficacy of autopsy, which provides clues of etiology. At the same time, the post-mortem MRI provides the directions for the operation autopsy. Both the prenatal and post-mortem MRI should be extended to use in fetal abnormalities screening studies. Key words: high-resolution MRI，fetal central nervous system abnormalities，Ultrasound,US。

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