Fetal and placental anatomy visualized with cinematic rendering from volumetric CT data

Abstract

Avoiding unnecessary radiation exposure in children, including fetuses or embryos, is of paramount importance. However, emergent clinical situations will arise that necessitate the use of ionizing radiation-based modalities, such as computed tomography (CT), in this patient population. In such circumstances, the use of advanced visualization methods may provide optimum diagnostic utility. We present the case of a pregnant patient with Loeys-Dietz syndrome who was evaluated with CT angiography to rule out an acute aortic syndrome. The CT data from the fetus and placenta were reconstructed using the new cinematic rendering technique that allows for photorealistic display. The potential advantages of cinematic rendering relative to traditional volume rendering are discussed.

Cinematic rendering of paediatric musculoskeletal pathologies: initial experiences with CT

“…In the paediatric population only small case series assessing cardiac anomalies 11,12 and case reports for post-mortem fetal 13 and intra-uterine imaging 14 have been published. Musculoskeletal anomalies are well suited for CR reconstruction, given the marked differences in tissue densities between bone and soft tissue 15 .…”

3D CT cinematic rendering of pediatric thoracic vascular anomalies

“…While its clinical and diagnostic roles remain under study, several reports have cited improved visualization of a wide variety of pathologies in the adult population, including in the abdominal [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , obstetric [13] , musculoskeletal [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] , [18] , and cardiovascular systems [19] , [20] . In the cardiac system, the improved 3D visualization afforded by CR has demonstrated value assessing complex cardiac anatomy [20] as well as intraluminal pathology [21] .…”

Three‐dimensional cinematic rendering of fetal skeletal dysplasia using postmortem computed tomography

“…Whilst CR technology bears several similarities to VR, it utilizes a more complex light modeling algorithm incorporating information from multiple light paths and predicted photon-scattering patterns 1,2 . Several recent publications have demonstrated the superior realism and expressiveness of CR over VR techniques in musculoskeletal [3][4][5] and vascular diseases, including in the case of a pregnant patient with Loeys-Dietz syndrome 6 . Given that this technique has been shown to perform best when there are greatest contrast differences between tissues, we applied the software to two postmortem computed tomography datasets which were acquired as part of the perinatal death investigation in two fetuses with lethal skeletal dysplasia.…”