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Visualization and Quantification of Placental Vasculature Using MRI

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Perinatal, Preterm and Paediatric Image Analysis (PIPPI 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14246))

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Abstract

Visualization of the placental vasculature in vivo is important for parameterization of placental function which is related to obstetric pathologies such as fetal growth restriction (FGR). However, most analysis of this vasculature is conducted ex vivo after delivery of the placenta. The aim of this study was to determine whether in vivo MRI imaging can accurately quantify the feto-placental vasculature, and to determine the impact of MRI contrast on its identification. Six different MRI contrasts were compared across 10 different cases. Image quality metrics were calculated, and analysis of vasculature segmentations performed. Measures of assessment included the vessel radius distribution, vessel connectivity and the identification of vessel loops. T2 HASTE imaging performed the best both qualitatively, and quantitatively for PSNR and connectivity measures. A larger number of segmented branches at the smallest radii were observed, indicative of a richer description of the in vivo vascular tree. These were then mapped to MR perfusion fraction measurements from intra-voxel incoherent motion (IVIM) MRI. Mapped results were compared to measures extracted from gold-standard ex vivo micro-CT of the placenta and showed similar vessel density patterns suggesting that placental vessel analysis may be feasible in vivo.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences (BMEIS), King’s College London, London, UK

    Joanna Chappell, Sebastien Ourselin & Andrew Melbourne

  2. Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London Hospitals, London, UK

    Magdalena Sokolska

  3. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Institute for Women’s Health, University College, London, UK

    Rosalind Aughwane & Anna L. David

  4. Auckland Bioengineering Institute, Auckland, New Zealand

    Alys R. Clark & Anna L. David

  5. University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK

    Joanna Chappell, Magdalena Sokolska, Rosalind Aughwane, Alys R. Clark, Sebastien Ourselin, Anna L. David & Andrew Melbourne

Authors
  1. Joanna Chappell
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  2. Magdalena Sokolska
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  3. Rosalind Aughwane
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  4. Alys R. Clark
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  5. Sebastien Ourselin
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  6. Anna L. David
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  7. Andrew Melbourne
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joanna Chappell .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Daphna Link-Sourani

  2. Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Esra Abaci Turk

  3. The Hospital For Sick Children Research, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Christopher Macgowan

  4. King’s College London, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, London, UK, Friedrich-Alexander Universität, MR-Physik am Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany

    Jana Hutter

  5. King’s College London, London, UK

    Andrew Melbourne

  6. Medical University of Vienna, Department of Biomedical Imaging, Vienna, Austria, Image-guided Therapy, Computational Image Research, Vienna, Austria

    Roxane Licandro

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© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Chappell, J. et al. (2023). Visualization and Quantification of Placental Vasculature Using MRI. In: Link-Sourani, D., Abaci Turk, E., Macgowan, C., Hutter, J., Melbourne, A., Licandro, R. (eds) Perinatal, Preterm and Paediatric Image Analysis. PIPPI 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14246. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45544-5_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45544-5_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-45543-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-45544-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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