TY - JOUR
T1 - Visualization and Quantification of Placental Vasculature Using MRI
AU - Chappell, Joanna
AU - Sokolska, Magdalena
AU - Aughwane, Rosalind
AU - Clark, Alys R.
AU - Ourselin, Sebastien
AU - David, Anna L.
AU - Melbourne, Andrew
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Visualization of the placental vasculature in vivo is important for parameterization of placental function which is related to obstetric pathologies such as fetal growth restriction (FGR). However, most analysis of this vasculature is conducted ex vivo after delivery of the placenta. The aim of this study was to determine whether in vivo MRI imaging can accurately quantify the feto-placental vasculature, and to determine the impact of MRI contrast on its identification. Six different MRI contrasts were compared across 10 different cases. Image quality metrics were calculated, and analysis of vasculature segmentations performed. Measures of assessment included the vessel radius distribution, vessel connectivity and the identification of vessel loops. T2 HASTE imaging performed the best both qualitatively, and quantitatively for PSNR and connectivity measures. A larger number of segmented branches at the smallest radii were observed, indicative of a richer description of the in vivo vascular tree. These were then mapped to MR perfusion fraction measurements from intra-voxel incoherent motion (IVIM) MRI. Mapped results were compared to measures extracted from gold-standard ex vivo micro-CT of the placenta and showed similar vessel density patterns suggesting that placental vessel analysis may be feasible in vivo.
AB - Visualization of the placental vasculature in vivo is important for parameterization of placental function which is related to obstetric pathologies such as fetal growth restriction (FGR). However, most analysis of this vasculature is conducted ex vivo after delivery of the placenta. The aim of this study was to determine whether in vivo MRI imaging can accurately quantify the feto-placental vasculature, and to determine the impact of MRI contrast on its identification. Six different MRI contrasts were compared across 10 different cases. Image quality metrics were calculated, and analysis of vasculature segmentations performed. Measures of assessment included the vessel radius distribution, vessel connectivity and the identification of vessel loops. T2 HASTE imaging performed the best both qualitatively, and quantitatively for PSNR and connectivity measures. A larger number of segmented branches at the smallest radii were observed, indicative of a richer description of the in vivo vascular tree. These were then mapped to MR perfusion fraction measurements from intra-voxel incoherent motion (IVIM) MRI. Mapped results were compared to measures extracted from gold-standard ex vivo micro-CT of the placenta and showed similar vessel density patterns suggesting that placental vessel analysis may be feasible in vivo.
KW - Placenta
KW - Placental MRI
KW - Segmentation
KW - Vasculature
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85175876270&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-45544-5_8
DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-45544-5_8
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85175876270
SN - 0302-9743
SP - 88
EP - 97
JO - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
JF - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
T2 - 8th International Workshop on Perinatal, Preterm and Paediatric Image Analysis, PIPPI 2023
Y2 - 12 October 2023 through 12 October 2023
ER -