Multidimensional fetal flow imaging with cardiovascular magnetic resonance: a feasibility study

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Fetal Physiology
• Medical Imaging Technology

Background:

• Accurate assessment of fetal cardiovascular function is crucial for prenatal care.
• Existing imaging techniques may have limitations in visualizing complex multidimensional blood flow in utero.
• Phase contrast cardiovascular magnetic resonance (PC-CMR) offers potential for non-invasive flow quantification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel PC-CMR method for imaging multidimensional fetal blood flow.
• To incorporate motion correction and retrospective gating for improved image quality and accuracy.
• To achieve the first quantification and visualization of multidimensional fetal blood flow using CMR.

Main Methods:

• A novel ungated golden-angle radial PC-CMR sequence with continuously incremented velocity encoding was developed.
• The technique utilizes retrospective motion correction and cardiac gating (metric optimized gating, MOG).
• Healthy adults and pregnant subjects were imaged at 3T, followed by CINE reconstructions.

Main Results:

• The novel PC-CMR method demonstrated strong agreement with conventional Cartesian acquisitions in adults.
• High temporal correlation (R ≈ 0.98) and low timing errors (< 20 ms) were observed.
• The study achieved the first insights into multidimensional fetal blood flows, showing strong inter-subject consistency and high waveform reproducibility.

Conclusions:

• A validated multidimensional PC-CMR technique for fetal flow imaging was successfully developed.
• The method incorporates retrospective motion compensation and cardiac gating.
• This advancement enables the first quantification and visualization of multidimensional fetal blood flow using CMR.