Fetal cardiac cine imaging using highly-accelerated dynamic MRI with retrospective motion correction and outlier rejection

MRI is increasingly being used as an adjunct to ultrasound to assess the developing fetus. Motion, however, remains a key limiting factor to the use of MRI to depict the fetal heart and great vessels in utero. The challenges are numerous when imaging a small, rapidly- beating heart that is subject to various regular and spontaneous movements within the context of the maternal torso. 

A MRI acquisition and reconstruction strategy was developed to depict fetal cardiac anatomy in the presence of maternal and fetal motion. Highly-accelerated dynamic MRI was used to image the fetal heart, and retrospective, image-based techniques provided cardiac synchronisation, motion correction, and outlier rejection to generate a fully corrected 2D cine image series. 

Each video shows a single cardiac cycle of the fetal heart with field of view cropped to 100×100 mm.

Fetal cardiac cine MR image series were generated using the method described in: 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mrm.26686/full

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Identifier,   Gestational Age (weeks+days),    Reason for Scan

fcmr089s33, 35+6, anomalous pulmonary veinous  drainage

fcmr090s32, 33+3, hypoplastic right heart

fcmr097s30, 26+1, volunteer

fcmr099s30, 33+6, absent pulmonary valve

fcmr100s34, 26+2, volunteer

fcmr101s22, 27+4, volunteer

fcmr103s24, 33+6, query coarctation of the aorta

fcmr106s27, 31+3, query double aortic arch

fcmr107s24, 29+6, query coarctation of the aorta

fcmr114s26, 28+3, volunteer

fcmr116s21, 30+3, hypoplastic left heart

fcmr119s25, 33+3, double discordance, bilateral superior vena cava

fcmr119s27, 33+3, double discordance, bilateral superior vena cava

fcmr122s36, 30+5, hypoplastic left heart                                

fcmr122s40, 30+5, hypoplastic left heart                                

fcmr126s30, 30+2, volunteer