Fetal MRI for prediction of neonatal mortality following preterm premature rupture of the fetal membranes

Abstract

Fetal MR lung volumetrics may be useful for predicting mortality due to respiratory distress in children with early gestational pPROM.

Foetal lung volumes in pregnant women who deliver very preterm: a pilot study

“…The mean number of days from MRI to delivery in the preterm group was 10.5 (range 0-48). The median number of days of rupture of membranes to MRI in the group that had PPROM was 4 (range [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Two fetuses that delivered >37 weeks were admitted to the neonatal unit, one for a few hours with suspected RDS and the second for two days with hypoglycaemia not requiring respiratory support.…”

“…Previous studies have reported a reduction in absolute MRI derived lung volumes in fetuses with PPROM in comparison with control cohorts (12,13).…”

Determination of Fetal Lung Maturity Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging Signal Intensity Measurements

“…6 Unfortunately, the technical complexity of the enterprise has limited its clinical application. 34 In the setting of preterm premature rupture of the fetal membranes, prolonged oligohydramnios causes a component of pulmonary hypoplasia; these fetuses are often delivered prematurely and thus suffer the consequences of lung immaturity as well as abnormal development. 33 This requires specialized software and significant extra effort, and the published results have been inconsistent and not reliably predictive of outcome.…”

Maternal smoking and fetal lung signals – an in utero MRI investigation

“…Although a paucity of data suggests the presence of abnormal changes in fetuses of smoking mothers, our results emphasize that fetal MRI cannot easily detect the impact of smoking on fetal lung development in utero . Because fetal MRI is sensitive enough to reliably identify cases of pulmonary hypoplasia, this further suggests that smoking‐related fetal lung structure alterations might be too subtle to influence fetal lung signals at 1.5 Tesla. Of note, our study was designed to detect a difference of LLSIR of 0.8, which we consider to be clinically relevant, with a power of 80%.…”