Improved Quantitative Assessment of the Fetal Brain from 3D Volumetric MRI

描述(由申请人提供)：该项目的总体目标是显著提高胎儿MRI对高危妊娠的诊断、分析和预后的能力。胎儿MRI获得的准确分析对于评估胎儿中枢神经系统发育障碍的高度可变的病因和鲜为人知的病理生理学是至关重要的，这些疾病影响到大约0.5%的妊娠。然而，胎儿MRI仅限于通过小胎儿大脑提供的小信号进行二维采集，以及中断先进的三维体积MRI所需的空间编码的间歇性胎儿运动。为了解决这一局限并揭示胎儿MRI的强大功能，我们提出了新的成像和图像处理技术，在该项目中追求四个特定的目标：目标1，对我们的总体目标至关重要，涉及到胎儿大脑的三维高空间分辨率体积T2w图像的超分辨率重建。目的2建立一个时空的胎脑图谱。目的3比较二维磁共振成像、二维超声成像和三维磁共振成像对胎儿大脑的生物测量和评价。最后，在目标4中，考虑了使用3D胎儿MRI对脑室增大的改进评估。脑室增大是最常见的胎儿大脑异常，影响约0.1%-0.2%的胎儿。目标1和2涉及临床使用的新技术的开发，目标3和4包括技术开发和假设检验，以了解与当前实践相比，使用所开发的技术在评估、诊断和分析胎儿大脑异常方面取得了多大的改进。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall objective of this project is to dramatically improve the capability of fetal MRI for diagnosis, analysis, and prognosis of high-risk pregnancies. Accurate analysis obtained by fetal MRI is crucial in evaluating the highly variable aetiology and poorly understood pathophysiology of fetal central nervous system developmental disorders which affect about one-half percent of pregnancies. Nevertheless, fetal MRI is limited to two- dimensional acquisitions by the small signal available from the small fetal brain, and by intermittent fetal motion that disrupts spatial encoding necessary for advanced three-dimensional volumetric MRI. In order to address this limitation and reveal the power of fetal MRI, we propose novel imaging and image processing technology pursuing four specific aims in this project; Aim 1, which is pivotal to our overall objective, involves super- resolution reconstruction of three-dimensional high spatial resolution volumetric T2w images of the fetal brain. Aim 2 involves the construction of a spatiotemporal fetal brain atlas. Aim 3 involves the comparison of fetal brain biometry and evaluation using 2D MRI, 2D sonography and 3D MRI. Finally in Aim 4 improved assessment of ventriculomegaly is considered using 3D fetal MRI. Ventriculomegaly is the most frequently observed fetal brain abnormality affecting about 0.1-0.2 percent of fetuses. Aims 1 and 2 involve the development of new technology for clinical use and Aims 3 and 4 involve both technical developments and hypothesis tests to see how much improvement is achieved in the evaluation, diagnosis, and analysis of fetal brain abnormalities using the developed technology as compared to the current practice.