Devasuda Anblagan1,
2, Kaiming Yin1, Rebecca Reynolds3, Fiona Denison2,
Mark E. Bastin4, Colin Studholme5, Jane Norman2,
Scott I. Semple1, Neil Roberts1
1Clinical
Research Imaging Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; 2MRC
Centre for Reproductive Health, Queen's Medical Research Institute,
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; 3Centre for
Cardiovascular Sciences, Queen's Medical Research Institute,, University of
Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; 4Centre for Clinical Brain
Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; 5Department
of Pediatrics Neonatology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United
States
Fetal MRI is increasingly used to study brain development, but is challenging due to fetal motion. While motion correction is now possible with fetal brain, it remains unclear what the ideal segmentation technique is to extract brain structures. Here, we report the practicality, time efficiency and precision of three stereology designs (Isotropic Cavalieri (IsoC), Invariator, and Nucleator) in estimating fetal brain volume on motion-corrected 3D fetal brain images, by comparing corresponding values obtained from the same MR images without motion correction. Our work suggests IsoC is the most precise and time efficient stereology method; Invariator and Nucleator may be convenient.
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