Early development of the fetal central sulcus on 7.0T magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract

In the previous studies, the criterion for deciding the occurrence time of the fetal central sulcus (CS) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is based on the observation by the eyes. There have been no existing quantitative standards or numerical criteria in this field. In this study, we reconstructed the three-dimension (3D) images of the fetal brain based on the 7.0T MR images of 45 Chinese fetal specimens from the 11 to 22 weeks of gestational age (GA). Then we obtained data by measuring the maximum depth and length of the CS so as to analyze the early developmental pattern of it. These measures, especially CS depth, can be used to quantitatively determine the time of emergence of the fetal CS during the development. Statistics show that there are no gender or interhemispheric asymmetries of the CS from GA of 11 to 22 weeks.

Morphologic Evolution and Coordinated Development of the Fetal Lateral Ventricles in the Second and Third Trimesters

“…The gestational age of fetuses at 14 -35 gestational weeks was estimated according to their crown-rump length and/or pregnancy records and was expressed as weeks from the last menstrual period. 14 The Table presents the number of subjects in each gestational week, including the numbers of males and females. The specific protocol of this study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committees of the School of Medicine of Shandong University.…”

“…The acquisition parameters of T2weighted slice images were the following: TR/TE, 17,000/50 ms; matrix size, 256 ϫ 256; slice thickness, 0.5 mm; number of excitations, 4; FOV, 6 ϫ 6 cm; voxel size, 0.5 ϫ 0.23 ϫ 0.23 mm 3 . 14 Due to the coil limitations, 43 specimens at 23-35 gestational weeks were scanned with a Signa 3T MR imaging scanner (GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, Wisconsin). The acquisition parameters of T1-weighted slice images were the following: TR/TE, 2580.0/ 23.4 ms; matrix size, 512 ϫ 512; slice thickness, 2 mm; number of excitations, 1; voxel size, 2 ϫ 1.9 ϫ 1.9 mm 3 .…”

Hemispheric asymmetry and gender dimorphism of the fetal central sulcus on 7.0-T MRI

“…After screening, fty-eight specimens were included in this study. The screening criteria were as follows: results of an US examination and 3.0-T MRI prescan showing that the fetal CNS was normal in anatomy and development; no history of familial genetic disease; pregnancy records without fetal chromosomal abnormalities, intrauterine pressure, or eclampsia; further imaging examination excluding intracranial diseases or extracranial abnormalities [21]. The demographic distributions of the specimens are listed in Table 1.…”

Comparison of postmortem whole‐body contrast‐enhanced microfocus computed tomography and high‐field magnetic resonance imaging of human fetuses

“…Methods In this study, the imaging process and quality of micro-CT and HF-MRI were compared using both qualitative and quantitative assessments. For the qualitative evaluation, fetal anatomy experts scored 56 HF-MRI and 56 micro-CT images of four human fetuses aged [13][14][15][16][17][18] gestational weeks on two components: overall image quality and the ability to recognize and assess 21 anatomical structures. For the quantitative evaluation, participants segmented manually three organs with increasing complexity to assess interobserver variability.…”

“…Imaging modalities such as high-field MRI (HF-MRI, ≥ 3 Tesla (T)) and microfocus CT (micro-CT) are potential options for the latter group 15 . Due to increased magnetic field strength, HF-MRI allows submillimeter spatial resolutions, enabling detailed examination of fetal anatomy, including the brain [16][17][18] , inner ear 19 and extremities 20 . Micro-CT, combined with a contrast agent (contrast-enhanced micro-CT), has also been shown to have a high concordance rate with fetal autopsy 13,21 .…”