Current & Future Fetal CMR Techniques
Chris Macgowan1
1University of Toronto & SickKids, Canada

Synopsis

Keywords: Cardiovascular: Cardiac, Cardiovascular: Blood, Image acquisition: Motion correction

In this presentation, I summarize recent advances in fetal cardiovascular MRI and discuss potential directions for the field. A wide range of topics will be introduced including dynamic cardiac imaging, flow quantification, and blood oximetry. The techniques that support such work will also be discussed including fast imaging, motion compensation, novel gating strategies, and volumetric reconstruction.

Synopsis of my talk

In this presentation, I summarize recent advances in fetal cardiovascular MRI and discuss potential directions for the field. A wide range of topics will be introduced including dynamic cardiac imaging, flow quantification, and blood oximetry. The techniques that support such work will also be discussed including fast imaging, motion compensation, novel gating strategies, and volumetric reconstruction.

Summary of main findings

Fetal cardiovascular MRI has evolved significantly over the last 15 years. It is now an important research tool for the assessment of cardiovascular anatomy and physiology, with growing interest in its clinical application. Some examples of its capabilities are:
  1. Detection of congenital heart defects, information on their severity and location, and identification of associated abnormalities such as lung involvement, which can affect postnatal management.
  2. Assessment of cardiac function through measurement of myocardial wall motion, strain, and cardiac output.
  3. Quantification of disrupted blood flow distribution in the presence of congenital heart disease, including volumetric blood flow quantification (4D flow).
  4. Assessment of blood oxygen saturation and hematocrit which, together with blood flow, provide oxygen delivery and consumption.
  5. Promise of improved surgical planning and monitoring of fetal response to in utero treatment.
These capabilities demand ongoing technical development in fast imaging, motion correction, and image reconstruction, as well as advances in MRI hardware to support such applications. In this presentation, I discuss recent innovations in fetal cardiovascular MRI and potential directions for the field.

Acknowledgements

No acknowledgement found.

References

No reference found.
Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 31 (2023)