Slice-to-Volume Reconstruction of Fetal Brain MR Imaging in Clinical Practice

Slice-to-volume reconstruction (SVR) is used to generate 3D isotropic high-resolution MR images from multiple 2D stacks to correct for fetal motion. The purpose of this study is to develop an automated SVR pipeline for integration into clinical workflow. This prospective, institutional review board-approved study included pregnant women undergoing fetal MRI. In addition to standard of care (SOC), which includes 2D T2-single-shot fast spin echo (SSFSE) contiguous images at 3-4 mm slice thickness, 2D T2-SSFSE images at 2.5 mm with 1.25 mm overlap in 5 imaging planes were obtained as inputs. Twenty-two patients (29.3 ± 5.7 weeks gestational age) were included. Though scan time alone was not significantly different between SOC (8.9 ± 2.9 minutes) versus SVR (9.3 ± 1.7 minutes, P = .5), the total examination time to include time between sequences was significantly longer for the SOC (17.2 ± 8.2 minutes) compared with SVR (10.9 ± 1.8 minutes, P = .001). Overall image quality, degree of noise/artifacts, and ability to obtain 2D measurements were all rated significantly higher for SVR compared with SOC (P < .05). SVR has the potential to improve image quality when compared with SOC in the fetal brain without increasing scan time.