Travis S. Scharr1, Katherine L. Ragland2, Majid A. Khan2, Kenneth Liechty3, James A. Bofill3, Razvan Buciuc2, Judy R. James2
1School of Medicine , University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, United States; 2Department of Radiology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS; 3University Center for Fetal Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS
Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) holds great potential for non-invasive identification of white matter development in the brain. The purpose of this study was to determine if DTI can help assess the functional correlation between gestational age and white matter fiber tract development in fetal brains and assess DTIs potential for identifying and interpreting the pathophysiology of brain abnormalities in-utero. Our results show a positive correlation between aspects of motor and sensory fiber development with increasing gestational age in normal fetuses. An optimized DTI technique should serve as a promising tool for a sub-structure evaluation of fetal brain abnormalities in-utero.