In vivo characterization of emerging white matter microstructure in the fetal brain in the third trimester.

ABSTRACT: The third trimester of pregnancy is a period of rapid development of fiber bundles in the fetal white matter. Using a recently developed motion-tracked slice-to-volume registration (MT-SVR) method, we aimed to quantify tract-specific developmental changes in apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), fractional anisotropy (FA), and volume in third trimester healthy fetuses. To this end, we reconstructed diffusion tensor images from motion corrected fetal diffusion magnetic resonance imaging data. With an approved protocol, fetal MRI exams were performed on healthy pregnant women at 3 Tesla and included multiple (2-8) diffusion scans of the fetal head (1-2 b = 0 s/mm² images and 12 diffusion-sensitized images at b = 500 s/mm² ). Diffusion data from 32 fetuses (13 females) w

SUBMITTER: Jaimes C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7375105 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature