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. 2018 Jun;39(6):1164-1169.
doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A5628. Epub 2018 Apr 19.

Volumetric Brain MRI Study in Fetuses with Congenital Heart Disease

H Olshaker  1   2 , R Ber  3   2 , D Hoffman  3   2 , E Derazne  2 , R Achiron  3   2 , E Katorza  3   2
Affiliations

Volumetric Brain MRI Study in Fetuses with Congenital Heart Disease

H Olshaker et al. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2018 Jun.

Abstract

Background and purpose: It is well-established that a high prevalence of infants with congenital heart defects surviving to childhood have neurodevelopmental abnormalities. The etiology is not clear. In this study, we aimed to find prenatal neuroanatomic changes in fetuses with congenital heart disease to better understand the pathophysiology behind these sequelae.

Materials and methods: A retrospective study of 46 fetal brain MR imaging scans was performed at a tertiary medical center during a 4-year period. Clinical data were collected from electronic medical charts. Volumes of the supratentorial brain, right hemisphere, left hemisphere, and cerebellum were measured using a semiautomated method and were compared with the normal growth percentiles.

Results: We found that cerebellar volume and the cerebellar-supratentorial volume ratio were significantly lower among fetuses with congenital heart disease. Supratentorial and hemisphere volumes showed no difference between groups. This difference was not observed in fetuses with septation defects.

Conclusions: Fetuses with congenital heart disease have smaller cerebellar volumes than healthy fetuses. Additional research is needed to assess this finding as a radiologic marker for long-term outcome.

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Figures

Fig 1.
Fig 1.
A, The initial contour drawn manually on the midcoronal slice. B, Converged contour automatically propagated by a level-set-based active contour algorithm. C, The contour after manual adjustment.
Fig 2.
Fig 2.
Brain volumes of the CHD group distributed by percentiles derived from the reference group: STV, RHV/LHV, and CV.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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