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Normative linear and volumetric biometric measurements of fetal brain development in magnetic resonance imaging

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Abstract

Purpose

To provide normative two-dimensional and three-dimensional measurements of brain development in normal fetuses during the second and third trimester by a new semi-automated method.

Methods

In this retrospective study, we included 98 normal fetuses at our institution between 21 and 38 weeks of gestation. Two-dimensional measurements of the brain were including biparietal diameter, occipitofrontal diameter, head circumference, transverse cerebellar diameter, and atrial diameter. Volumetric parameters were obtained by using ITK-SNAP software, including left and right cerebral hemispheres, lateral ventricle, the cerebellum, and extracerebral cerebrospinal fluid.

Results

All linear and volume measurements were positively correlated with gestational age except for cerebrospinal fluid. Each anatomical region of the fetal brain showed a different relative growth rate. There was some volume asymmetry between the left and right lateral ventricles, and the left side was larger. The inter-observer and intra-observer agreement was excellent for all measures.

Conclusion

We established the 5th, 50th, and 95th percentile values of fetal brain volume measurements in magnetic resonance, and this may be helpful to understand the damage of fetal brain development.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Science and Technology Commission Shanghai Municipality [No. 19ZR1407200].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Shulei Cai, Guofu Zhang, He Zhang & Jing Wang

Authors
  1. Shulei Cai
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  2. Guofu Zhang
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  3. He Zhang
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  4. Jing Wang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Conceptualization: Shulei Cai and Guofu Zhang. Methodology: Shulei Cai and He Zhang. Formal analysis and investigation: Shulei Cai and Jing Wang. Writing original draft preparation: Shulei Cai. Writing, review, and editing: Shulei Cai, Guofu Zhang, He Zhang, and Jing Wang. Funding acquisition: Guofu Zhang. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guofu Zhang.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

Ethical approval was waived by the local Ethics Committee of Fudan University in view of the retrospective nature of the study and all the procedures being performed were part of the routine care.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Consent to publish

Patients signed informed consent regarding publishing their data and photographs.

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Cai, S., Zhang, G., Zhang, H. et al. Normative linear and volumetric biometric measurements of fetal brain development in magnetic resonance imaging. Childs Nerv Syst 36, 2997–3005 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00381-020-04633-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00381-020-04633-3

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