Fetal organ weight estimation by postmortem high‐field magnetic resonance imaging before 20 weeks' gestation

Votino, Carmela; Verhoye, Marleen; Segers, Valérie; Cannie, Mieke; Bessières, Bettina; Cos, T.; Lipombi, Dominique; Jani, Jacques

doi:10.1002/uog.11151

Cited by 22 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(28 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…12,20–23 Over the past 10 years, the first in vivo studies involving MRI-derived measures of tissue and organ masses were published. 24–26 With the advent of this new technology, the characterization of fetal body composition in the clinical setting with high accuracy to diagnose the lean, overfat (mid-thigh or mid arm fat mass (FM) >95th percentile), 27 small or large fetus and other body composition-related diseases is possible. Historical body composition studies of the fetus are described below.…”

Section: Body Composition In the Fetus Newborn And Infantmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body composition during fetal development and infancy through the age of 5 years

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fetal body composition is an important determinant of body composition at birth, and it is likely to be an important determinant at later stages in life. The purpose of this work is to provide a comprehensive overview by presenting data from previously published studies that report on body composition during fetal development in newborns and the infant/child through 5 years of age. Understanding the changes in body composition that occur both in utero and during infancy and childhood, and how they may be related, may help inform evidence-based practice during pregnancy and childhood. We describe body composition measurement techniques from the in utero period to 5 years of age, and identify gaps in knowledge to direct future research efforts. Available literature on chemical and cadaver analyses of fetal studies during gestation is presented to show the timing and accretion rates of adipose and lean tissues. Quantitative and qualitative aspects of fetal lean and fat mass accretion could be especially useful in the clinical setting for diagnostic purposes. The practicality of different pediatric body composition measurement methods in the clinical setting is discussed by presenting the assumptions and limitations associated with each method that may assist the clinician in characterizing the health and nutritional status of the fetus, infant and child. It is our hope that this review will help guide future research efforts directed at increasing the understanding of how body composition in early development may be associated with chronic diseases in later life.

show abstract

Section: Body Composition In the Fetus Newborn And Infantmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body composition during fetal development and infancy through the age of 5 years

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Several studies have demonstrated that PMMR can be used to perform non-diagnostic tasks usually performed during autopsy, such as organ weight and volume estimation. 28,29,33 However, several of the techniques involved used manual segmentations and semiautomated technique, 29 which can be time consuming and requires specialist image analysis expertise. Automated segmentation systems may improve the speed and generalizability of these techniques in future.…”

Section: Tissue Sampling Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Brain and spinal cord anomalies account for 20% of fatal congenital abnormalities in foetuses, and PMMR has a high sensitivity and specificity for detecting these abnormalities in foetuses. 19,32 Several studies have also recently demonstrated that PMMR can be used to perform non-diagnostic tasks usually performed during autopsy, such as organ weight and volume estimation, 28,29,33 thus suggesting that it may be a suitable alternative to autopsy in some cases. Whole-body imaging and specific imaging in other body systems have not been fully evaluated until recently.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-mortem MRI as an alternative to non-forensic autopsy in foetuses and children: from research into clinical practice

Addison¹,

Arthurs²,

Thayyil³

2014

BJR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although post-mortem MRI (PMMR) was proposed as an alternative to conventional autopsy more than a decade ago, the lack of systematic validation has limited its clinical uptake. Minimally invasive autopsy (MIA) using PMMR together with ancillary investigations has now been shown to be as accurate as conventional autopsy in foetuses, newborns and infants and is particularly useful for cerebral, cardiac and genitourinary imaging. Unlike conventional autopsy, PMMR provides a permanent three-dimensional auditable record, with accurate estimation of internal organ volumes. MIA is becoming highly acceptable to parents and professionals, and there is widespread political support and public interest in its clinical implementation in the UK. In the short to medium term, it is desirable that a supraregional network of specialist centres should be established to provide this service within the current National Health Service framework.

show abstract

“…Maintaining the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the image at this smaller voxel size would require 8 × 8 = 64 times more signal averages (number of excitations) and thus a 64 times longer scan time. As shown in Table 2, several researchers were able to achieve higher resolution than Thayyil et al [14] in shorter scanning time, but they only scanned organs partially with a limited amount of slices and thus were able to use small sensitive RF-coils [15,44,45]. As with micro-CT, it is recommended to first decide on the desired degree of morphological detail and contrast, and then on the required resolution.…”

Section: Imagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel imaging techniques to study postmortem human fetal anatomy: a systematic review on microfocus-CT and ultra-high-field MRI

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background MRI and CT have been extensively used to study fetal anatomy for research and diagnostic purposes, enabling minimally invasive autopsy and giving insight in human fetal development. Novel (contrast-enhanced) microfocus CT (micro-CT) and ultra-high-field (≥ 7.0 T) MRI (UHF-MRI) techniques now enable micron-level resolution that combats the disadvantages of low-field MRI and conventional CT. Thereby, they might be suitable to study fetal anatomy in high detail and, in time, contribute to the postmortem diagnosis of fetal conditions. Objectives (1) To systematically examine the usability of micro-CT and UHF-MRI to study postmortem human fetal anatomy, and (2) to analyze factors that govern success at each step of the specimen preparation and imaging. Method MEDLINE and EMBASE were systematically searched to identify publications on fetal imaging by micro-CT or UHF-MRI. Scanning protocols were summarized and best practices concerning specimen preparation and imaging were enumerated. Results Thirty-two publications reporting on micro-CT and UHF-MRI were included. The majority of the publications focused on imaging organs separately and seven publications focused on whole body imaging, demonstrating the possibility of visualization of small anatomical structures with a resolution well below 100 μm. When imaging soft tissues by micro-CT, the fetus should be stained by immersion in Lugol's staining solution.Conclusion Micro-CT and UHF-MRI are both excellent imaging techniques to provide detailed images of gross anatomy of human fetuses. The present study offers an overview of the current best practices when using micro-CT and/or UHF-MRI to study fetal anatomy for clinical and research purposes. Key Points • Micro-CT and UHF-MRI can both be used to study postmortem human fetal anatomy for clinical and research purposes.• Micro-CT enables high-resolution imaging of fetal specimens in relatively short scanning time. However, tissue staining using a contrast solution is necessary to enable soft-tissue visualization. • UHF-MRI enables high-resolution imaging of fetal specimens, without the necessity of prior staining, but with the drawback of long scanning time.

show abstract

Fetal organ weight estimation by postmortem high‐field magnetic resonance imaging before 20 weeks' gestation

Abstract: Objective To ascertain whether high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Cited by 22 publications

References 18 publications

Body composition during fetal development and infancy through the age of 5 years

Body composition during fetal development and infancy through the age of 5 years

Post-mortem MRI as an alternative to non-forensic autopsy in foetuses and children: from research into clinical practice

Novel imaging techniques to study postmortem human fetal anatomy: a systematic review on microfocus-CT and ultra-high-field MRI

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About