TY - JOUR
T1 - Reliability and Feasibility of Low-Field-Strength Fetal MRI at 0.55 T during Pregnancy
AU - Aviles Verdera, Jordina
AU - Story, Lisa
AU - Hall, Megan
AU - Finck, Tom
AU - Egloff, Alexia
AU - Seed, Paul T.
AU - Malik, Shaihan J.
AU - Rutherford, Mary A.
AU - Hajnal, Joseph V.
AU - Tomi-Tricot, Raphaël
AU - Hutter, Jana
N1 - Funding Information:
Supported by a Wellcome Trust Collaboration in Science grant (WT201526/Z/16/Z); J.H. supported by a United Kingdom Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/T018119/1); L.S. supported by an NIHR Advanced Fellowship (NIHR3016640) and by core funding from the Wellcome/Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Centre for Medical Engineering (WT203148/Z/16/Z).
Funding Information:
Training Partnership. L.S. Grants from the Leona M and Harry B Helmsley Charitable Trust; MRC Medical Research Council; BMFMS British Maternal and Fetal Medicine Society; KHP Research and Development challenge fund; NIHR National Institute For Health and Care Research; J P Moulton Charitable Foundation; Academy of Medical Sciences. Scientific editor, British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Participant on a scientific advisory board, Royal College of Obstetricians Gynecologists. M.H. No relevant relationships. T.F. No relevant relationships. A.E. No relevant relationships. P.T.S. No relevant relationships. S.J.M. No relevant relationships. M.A.R. No relevant relationships. J.V.H. Funded by Siemens; grant from Wellcome Trust; equipment loan from Siemens Healthineers. R.T.T. Employee, Siemens Healthcare. J.H. Grant support, Wellcome Trust; MRC funding; EPSRC funding. Advisory board membership, Wellcome Open Research.
Funding Information:
Supported by a Wellcome Trust Collaboration in Science grant (WT201526/Z/16/Z); J.H. supported by a United Kingdom Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/T018119/1); L.S. supported by an NIHR Advanced Fellowship (NIHR3016640) and by core funding from the Wellcome/Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Centre for Medical Engineering (WT203148/Z/16/Z). The authors thank all of the pregnant women and their families for taking part in this study. The authors thank Imogen Desforges, BSc, Chidinma Iheanetu Oguejiofor, MSc, and Maggie Lee for their invaluable efforts in recruiting and looking after the women in this study as well as Kathleen Colford, BSc, Massimo Marenzana, PhD, Philippa Bridgen, BSc, and Peter Murkin, MA, for their involvement in the acquisition of these data sets.
Publisher Copyright:
© RSNA, 2023.
PY - 2023/10/1
Y1 - 2023/10/1
N2 - Background: The benefits of using low-field-strength fetal MRI to evaluate antenatal development include reduced image artifacts, increased comfort, larger bore size, and potentially reduced costs, but studies about fetal low-field-strength MRI are lacking. Purpose: To evaluate the reliability and feasibility of low-field-strength fetal MRI to assess anatomic and functional measures in pregnant participants using a commercially available 0.55-T MRI scanner and a comprehensive 20-minute protocol. Materials and Methods: This prospective study was performed at a large teaching hospital (St Thomas’ Hospital; London, England) from May to November 2022 in healthy pregnant participants and participants with pregnancy-related abnormalities using a commercially available 0.55-T MRI scanner. A 20-minute protocol was acquired including anatomic T2-weighted fast-spin-echo, quantitative T2*, and diffusion sequences. Key measures like biparietal diameter, transcerebellar diameter, lung volume, and cervical length were evaluated by two radiologists and an MRI-experienced obstetrician. Functional organ-specific mean values were given. Comparison was performed with existing published values and higher-field MRI using linear regression, interobserver correlation, and Bland-Altman plots. Results: A total of 79 fetal MRI examinations were performed (mean gestational age, 29.4 weeks ± 5.5 [SD] [age range, 17.6–39.3 weeks]; maternal age, 34.4 years ± 5.3 [age range, 18.4–45.5 years]) in 47 healthy pregnant participants (control participants) and in 32 participants with pregnancy-related abnormalities. The key anatomic two-dimensional measures for the 47 healthy participants agreed with large cross-sectional 1.5-T and 3-T control studies. The interobserver correlations for the biparietal diameter in the first 40 consecutive scans were 0.96 (95% CI: 0.7, 0.99; P = .002) for abnormalities and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.86, 0.97; P < .001) for control participants. Functional features, including placental and brain T2* and placental apparent diffusion coefficient values, strongly correlated with gestational age (mean placental T2* in the control participants: 5.2 msec of decay per week; R
2 = 0.66; mean T2* at 30 weeks, 176.6 msec; P < .001). Conclusion: The 20-minute low-field-strength fetal MRI examination protocol was capable of producing reliable structural and functional measures of the fetus and placenta in pregnancy.
AB - Background: The benefits of using low-field-strength fetal MRI to evaluate antenatal development include reduced image artifacts, increased comfort, larger bore size, and potentially reduced costs, but studies about fetal low-field-strength MRI are lacking. Purpose: To evaluate the reliability and feasibility of low-field-strength fetal MRI to assess anatomic and functional measures in pregnant participants using a commercially available 0.55-T MRI scanner and a comprehensive 20-minute protocol. Materials and Methods: This prospective study was performed at a large teaching hospital (St Thomas’ Hospital; London, England) from May to November 2022 in healthy pregnant participants and participants with pregnancy-related abnormalities using a commercially available 0.55-T MRI scanner. A 20-minute protocol was acquired including anatomic T2-weighted fast-spin-echo, quantitative T2*, and diffusion sequences. Key measures like biparietal diameter, transcerebellar diameter, lung volume, and cervical length were evaluated by two radiologists and an MRI-experienced obstetrician. Functional organ-specific mean values were given. Comparison was performed with existing published values and higher-field MRI using linear regression, interobserver correlation, and Bland-Altman plots. Results: A total of 79 fetal MRI examinations were performed (mean gestational age, 29.4 weeks ± 5.5 [SD] [age range, 17.6–39.3 weeks]; maternal age, 34.4 years ± 5.3 [age range, 18.4–45.5 years]) in 47 healthy pregnant participants (control participants) and in 32 participants with pregnancy-related abnormalities. The key anatomic two-dimensional measures for the 47 healthy participants agreed with large cross-sectional 1.5-T and 3-T control studies. The interobserver correlations for the biparietal diameter in the first 40 consecutive scans were 0.96 (95% CI: 0.7, 0.99; P = .002) for abnormalities and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.86, 0.97; P < .001) for control participants. Functional features, including placental and brain T2* and placental apparent diffusion coefficient values, strongly correlated with gestational age (mean placental T2* in the control participants: 5.2 msec of decay per week; R
2 = 0.66; mean T2* at 30 weeks, 176.6 msec; P < .001). Conclusion: The 20-minute low-field-strength fetal MRI examination protocol was capable of producing reliable structural and functional measures of the fetus and placenta in pregnancy.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85174749735&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1148/radiol.223050
DO - 10.1148/radiol.223050
M3 - Article
C2 - 37847139
AN - SCOPUS:85174749735
SN - 1527-1315
VL - 309
JO - Radiology
JF - Radiology
IS - 1
M1 - e223050
ER -