Three-Dimensional Imaging of the Postmortem Fetus by MRI: Early Experience

Abstract

Objective: The feasibility and significance of three-dimensional (3D) visualization of the postmortem fetus using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was investigated. Methods: 3D reconstruction of sectional MRI data sets from 8 postmortem fetuses was performed. Results: Fetal configurations and internal structures, both normal and pathological, were clearly demonstrated by 3D display. Conclusion: This new technique provides high quality fetal 3D images for postmortem morphological diagnosis and interactive visual teaching. It may eventually have applications in prenatal diagnosis and the preoperative simulation of fetal surgery.

Less Invasive Autopsy: Benefits and Limitations of the Use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Perinatal Postmortem

“…Magnetic resonance imaging is a good adjunct to the traditional PM, which has a high sensitivity (detects an abnormality), but often has low specificity (cannot tell what it is) [15]. Future progress in imaging techniques, possibly towards the development of better quality 3-dimensional imaging [27], may eventually result in a less invasive autopsy (so-called ''virtopsy''), particularly in cases of structural abnormalities. However, many of these will still need histological examination in order to reach a diagnosis.…”

New fetal cardiac imaging techniques

“…Post-mortem magnetic resonance studies have shown the possibility of reconstructing 3D images of the fetal cardiac anatomy of such high quality that most macroscopic structures seen at autopsy are clearly depicted (Meyer-Wittkopf et al, 1996;Deng et al, 1996a). This has great value for the support of traditional autopsy examination and virtual teaching (Brookes et al, 1999), and in some cases, may avoid the need for post-mortem examination. The high image quality is due to not only the absence of motion artefacts, but also the higher contrast resolution of magnetic resonance imaging than that of ultrasound and its ability to visualise the entire field of view rather than only peeping from restricted acoustic windows.…”

Perinatal and paediatric post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging (PMMR): sequences and technique

“…A comprehensive literature search revealed over 15 different protocols described at 1.5 T or 3.0 T since perinatal PMMR began almost 20 years ago. A summary of the main published protocols is given in Table 1, [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] together with a summary of our group's current protocol which is described in this article in more detail. We excluded studies which described only the adult population, higher field strengths (7.0 or 9.4 T) MR, and reference the first article where more than one article from the same group has used the same protocol.…”

“…Some groups also describe using T 1 weighted (T1-w) sequences 11,13,19 or 3D T1-w sequences, 10,17,18 but most authors report that T1-w brain imaging added little, generally due to a lack of tissue contrast. 9,14 Only within the past 5 years have some authors begun to use susceptibilityweighted sequences to detect subtle haemorrhage.…”