Advanced functional MRI techniques were applied to the fetal lungs to increase our understanding of in-utero lung development, imperative for accurate antenatal diagnosis to identify fetuses at highest risk of morbidity. Our preliminary results show that combined T2*-diffusion imaging is a feasible technique to analyse the developing lungs in utero. A reduction in both lung volumes and T2* values associated with fetuses that subsequently delivered preterm was identified - paving the way for future more detailed in depth studies.
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