Human Fetal Blood Flow Quantification with Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Motion Compensation

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important tool for the clinical assessment of cardiovascular morphology and heart function. It is also the recognized standard-of-care for blood flow quantification based on phase contrast MRI. While such measurement of blood flow has been possible in adults for decades, methods to extend this capability to fetal blood flow have only recently been developed. Fetal blood flow quantification in major vessels is important for monitoring fetal pathologies such as congenital heart disease (CHD) and fetal growth restriction (FGR). CHD causes alterations in the cardiac structure and vasculature that change the course of blood in the fetus. In FGR, the path of blood flow is altered through the dilation of shunts such that the oxygenated blood supply to the brain is increased. Blood flow quantification enables assessment of the severity of the fetal pathology, which in turn allows for suitable in utero patient management and planning for postnatal care. The primary challenges of applying phase contrast MRI to the human fetus include small blood vessel size, high fetal heart rate, potential MRI data corruption due to maternal respiration, unpredictable fetal movements, and lack of conventional cardiac gating methods to synchronize data acquisition. Here, we describe recent technical developments from our lab that have enabled the quantification of fetal blood flow using phase contrast MRI, including advances in accelerated imaging, motion compensation, and cardiac gating.