Three-Dimensional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Postmortem Fetal Heart

Abstract

Five postmortem fetuses were scanned by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Of eight three-dimensional (3D) data sets reconstructed on an MGI workstation, five sets demonstrated detailed 3D fetal cardiac structures, and one depicted clear information regarding the disposition and compression of the heart and lungs in diaphragmatic hernia. This study has shown the potential of 3D MR imaging in support of postmortem examination and for interactive visual teaching of the fetal cardiac structures. The new technique may eventually be of significance in prenatal detection of cardiac abnormalities with the development of fast real-time MR imaging.

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

“…macroscopic fetal structures seen at autopsy are clearly depicted. The 3D image quality obtained from this study and our previous fetal cardiac study [14] is much higher than that obtained from 3D ultrasound studies on live fetuses [16][17][18][19]. This is due to the absence of motion artefact caused by fetal and maternal movement and cardiac pulsation and blood flow, apart from the higher intrinsic tissue contrast of the imaging modality.…”

“…Details of individual organs or systems were further enhanced by close-up and multiorientation examination. 3D images of fetal cardiac details can be found in our previous paper [14]. The spatial relationships between different fetal 3D reconstructed organs were illustrated by interactive display in different directions, orientations, and depths (3D movies are available on the Internet with URL address: www.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/mgi/fetal/visfetus.htm).…”

“…Such difficulty is particularly seen in the assessment of complex structures such as the fetal nervous and cardiovascular systems. 3D display eases some of the difficulty in the comprehension of spatially complex malformations [14].…”

“…However, conventional 2D imaging requires great expertise to compose a great number of individual sectional slices into a three-dimensional (3D) mental picture. Our preliminary fetal studies have demonstrated the ability of 3D MRI to ease the difficulties in comprehension of spatially complex malformations [13,14].In this study we applied this 3D technique to a wide range of fetal organs and examined its current value in postmortem examinations and interactive visual teaching, and its potential use in prenatal diagnosis and the preoperative simulation of fetal surgery when real-time MRI becomes available. …”

In vivo Intrauterine Sound Pressure and Temperature Measurements during Magnetic Resonance Imaging (1.5 T) in Pregnant Ewes

“…Echocardiography is the clinical mainstay in assessment of the fetal heart; however, it is not a true three-dimensional imaging modality and can be constrained by acoustic windows [8,9,11] . To overcome these problems, MRI has been increasingly used in prenatal structural evaluation of abnormalities of the fetal heart beginning in the late 1990s.…”