Application of modern magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) techniques to the live fetus in utero is a relatively recent endeavor. The relative advantages and disadvantages of clinical MRI relative to the widely used and ac...Application of modern magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) techniques to the live fetus in utero is a relatively recent endeavor. The relative advantages and disadvantages of clinical MRI relative to the widely used and accepted ultrasonographic approach are the subject of a continuing debate; however the focus of this review is on the even younger field of quantitative MRI as applied to non-invasive studies of fetal brain development. The techniques covered under this header include structural MRI when followed by quan-titative(e.g., volumetric) analysis, as well as quantita-tive analyses of diffusion weighted imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy and functional MRI. The majority of the published work re-viewed here reflects information gathered from normal fetuses scanned during the 3rd trimester, with relatively smaller number of studies of pathological samples including common congenital pathologies such as ven-triculomegaly and viral infection.展开更多
文摘Application of modern magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) techniques to the live fetus in utero is a relatively recent endeavor. The relative advantages and disadvantages of clinical MRI relative to the widely used and accepted ultrasonographic approach are the subject of a continuing debate; however the focus of this review is on the even younger field of quantitative MRI as applied to non-invasive studies of fetal brain development. The techniques covered under this header include structural MRI when followed by quan-titative(e.g., volumetric) analysis, as well as quantita-tive analyses of diffusion weighted imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy and functional MRI. The majority of the published work re-viewed here reflects information gathered from normal fetuses scanned during the 3rd trimester, with relatively smaller number of studies of pathological samples including common congenital pathologies such as ven-triculomegaly and viral infection.
