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Establishment of fetal brain atlases during the early second trimester
Author(s) -
Liu ShuWei
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.91.2
Subject(s) - brain size , pipeline (software) , gestational age , normalization (sociology) , template , computer science , neuroimaging , software , first trimester , fetus , pattern recognition (psychology) , artificial intelligence , cartography , pregnancy , neuroscience , medicine , biology , radiology , magnetic resonance imaging , geography , genetics , sociology , anthropology , programming language
Objective The use of spatiotemporal atlases can significantly improve the results and efficiency of automated analysis of fetal brain MRI data. The current study aims to establish age‐specific fetal brain atlases of the early second trimester (15–22 gestational weeks). Materials and Methods The thirty‐four postmortem fetal specimens of 15–22 weeks GW were collected and performed in a 7.0T Micro‐MRI. Both the data conversion and bias field correction were implemented as Pipeline workflows developed by Laboratory of Neuroimaging of University of Southern California. Manual removal of the non‐brain tissue was performed using BrainSuite software. For each cortex, 4 complementary global shape metrics were computed using LONI ShapeTools pipeline library – volume, surface area, shape index and curvedness. The script buildtemplateparallel.sh of Advanced Normalization Tools (ANTs) developed by University of Pennsylvania was run in each week to build the average template of each week. Three‐Dimension surface reconstruction of these templates were performed by BrainSuite. The general template was built from these weekly templates. Results From 15 to 22 gestational weeks, growth trajectories of brain area and volume is fitted well by linear regression model. The whole brain increased in volume by approximately 4‐fold and about 2.5‐fold in area. To reduce the bias effects of different demographic distributions of different numbers within each week, we built the templates each week first. After 3D surface reconstruction of these templates, we found that the 15th week still has some trails of neural folding in the early stages. The brain surface of 22nd week still looks smooth, but the whole brain's general shape looks more mature. The aggregated general template was then built based on these weekly templates. Four layers of lamination structures are displayed, from outer to inner, these layers are: cortical plate, subplate zone, intermediate zone, ventricular zone. The composed parts of basal ganglia could also be distinguished. Conclusion Our study first established the spatial‐temporal atlas of the early second trimester. And we also obtained the general developmental trajectories of the early fetal brain development. These atlases based on the high‐field MRI data provide good resolution and contrast, which will enable to characterize the dynamic anatomical changes of fetal brain development. Support or Funding Information The National Natural Science Foundation of China(No. 31071050, No. 31571237)