Robinson A J, Blaser S, Vladimirov A, Drossman D, Chitayat D, Ryan G
1 Department of Radiology, Sidra Medical and Research Center, Doha, Qatar.
Br J Radiol. 2015 Feb;88(1046):20140496. doi: 10.1259/bjr.20140496. Epub 2014 Dec 11.
Foetal CT has recently been added to the foetal imaging armamentarium, but this carries with it the risks of ionizing radiation, both to the mother and the foetus. Foetal "black bone" MRI is a new technique that allows assessment of the foetal skeleton without the risk of exposure to ionizing radiation and is a potential new sequence in foetal MRI examination.
Retrospective review of all foetal MRI studies over the past 4- to 5-year period identified 36 cases where susceptibility weighted imaging was used. Cases were selected from this group to demonstrate the potential utility of this sequence.
This sequence is most frequently useful not only in the assessment of spinal abnormalities, most commonly the bony abnormalities in myelomeningocele, but also in cases of scoliosis, segmentation anomalies and sacrococcygeal teratoma.
Although the utility of this sequence is still being evaluated, it provides excellent contrast between the mineralized skeleton and surrounding soft tissues compared with standard half Fourier acquisition single-shot turbo-spin echo sequences. Further assessment is required to determine whether black bone MRI can more accurately evaluate the level of bony defect in spina bifida aperta, an important prognostic factor. Potential further uses include the assessment of skeletal dysplasias, evaluation of the skull base and craniofacial skeleton in certain congenital anomalies and the post-mortem evaluation of the foetal skeleton potentially obviating the need for necropsy.
Foetal black bone MRI can be performed using susceptibility weighted imaging and allows better demonstration of the mineralized skeleton compared with standard sequences.
胎儿CT最近已被纳入胎儿成像手段，但这会给母亲和胎儿带来电离辐射风险。胎儿“黑骨”磁共振成像（MRI）是一种新技术，可在不暴露于电离辐射风险的情况下评估胎儿骨骼，是胎儿MRI检查中一种潜在的新序列。
回顾性分析过去4至5年期间所有胎儿MRI研究，确定了36例使用了磁化率加权成像的病例。从该组病例中选取病例以展示该序列的潜在用途。
该序列不仅在评估脊柱异常（最常见的是脊髓脊膜膨出中的骨骼异常）时最常用，而且在脊柱侧弯、节段性异常和骶尾部畸胎瘤病例中也很有用。
尽管该序列的效用仍在评估中，但与标准半傅里叶采集单次激发快速自旋回波序列相比，它在矿化骨骼与周围软组织之间提供了出色的对比度。需要进一步评估以确定“黑骨”MRI是否能更准确地评估开放性脊柱裂中骨缺损的程度，这是一个重要的预后因素。潜在的进一步用途包括评估骨骼发育异常、评估某些先天性异常中的颅底和颅面骨骼，以及对胎儿骨骼进行尸检评估，这可能无需进行尸体解剖。
胎儿“黑骨”MRI可使用磁化率加权成像进行，与标准序列相比，能更好地显示矿化骨骼。
