Fetal Flow Quantification in Great Vessels Using Motion-Corrected Radial Phase Contrast MRI: Comparison With...

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Fetal Medicine

Background:

• Phase contrast MRI is crucial for assessing fetal great vessel pathologies.
• Fetal motion poses a significant challenge, compromising the accuracy of flow quantification.
• Improving flow quantification is essential for effective clinical management of fetal conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the improvements in fetal blood flow quantification using retrospectively motion-corrected golden-angle radial phase contrast MRI.
• To compare the performance of motion-corrected radial MRI against standard Cartesian MRI in fetal great vessels.

Main Methods:

• Method comparison study involving computer simulations and in vivo data from pregnant volunteers.
• Acquisition of phase contrast MRI data using both Cartesian and golden-angle radial sequences at 1.5T and 3T.
• Application of retrospective motion correction and metric optimized gating (MOG) for radial data reconstruction, compared to CINE reconstructions for Cartesian data.

Main Results:

• Simulations demonstrated superior flow accuracy and reconstruction quality with motion correction in radial MRI compared to Cartesian MRI.
• In vivo, motion-corrected radial reconstructions exhibited better image quality than Cartesian reconstructions.
• Significant differences in flow values were observed between motion-corrected radial and Cartesian reconstructions, particularly in low-quality Cartesian data.

Conclusions:

• Retrospectively motion-corrected golden-angle radial phase contrast MRI significantly enhances fetal blood flow quantification accuracy.
• This advanced technique offers improved image quality and more reliable flow measurements for fetal cardiovascular assessment.
• The findings support the clinical utility of motion-corrected radial MRI for managing fetal pathologies affecting the great vessels.