Caroline Wright1, David M. Morris2,3,
Philip N. Baker1,4, Ian P. Crocker1, Penny A. Gowland5,
Geoff Parker2,3, Colin P. Sibley1
1Maternal & Fetal
Health Research Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom;
2Imaging Science & Biomedical Engineering, University of
Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom; 3Biomedical Imaging
Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom; 4Faculty
of Medicine & Dentistry, Univerity of Alberta, Alberta, Canada; 5Sir
Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Imaging Centre, University of Nottingham,
Nottingham, United Kingdom
Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is a serious complication of pregnancy associated with morphological changes within the placental tissue. MRI may be useful in non-invasive placental assessment by analysis of relaxation times, T1 and T2. We investigated placental relaxation times in utero at 1.5 T and the relationship with morphology in 30 normal and 10 FGR pregnancies. A significant correlation was seen between relaxation times and gestational age and between T2 and the placental fibrin content. 4 of 10 T2 values for FGR pregnancies lay below the 95th confidence band; interestingly these pregnancies had the most severe forms of FGR.