MRI Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about MRI, including details on magnetic resonance imaging, neuroimaging, brain tumors.

Quantitative in vivo MRI measurement of cortical development in the fetus.

Clouchoux C, Kudelski D, Gholipour A, Warfield SK, Viseur S, Bouyssi-Kobar M, Mari JL, Evans AC, du Plessis AJ, Limperopoulos C

Division of Diagnostic Imaging and Radiology, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA.

Normal brain development is associated with expansion and folding of the cerebral cortex following a highly orchestrated sequence of gyral-sulcal formation. Although several studies have described the evolution of cerebral cortical development ex vivo or ex utero, to date, very few studies have characterized and quantified the gyrification process for the in vivo fetal brain. Recent advances in fetal magnetic resonance imaging and post-processing computational methods are providing new insights into fetal brain maturation in vivo. In this study, we investigate the in vivo fetal cortical folding pattern in healthy fetuses between 25 and 35 weeks gestational age using 3-D reconstructed fetal cortical surfaces. We describe the in vivo fetal gyrification process using a robust feature extraction algorithm applied directly on the cortical surface, providing an explicit delineation of the sulcal pattern during fetal brain development. We also delineate cortical surface measures, including surface area and gyrification index. Our data support an exuberant third trimester gyrification process and suggest a non-linear evolution of sulcal development. The availability of normative indices of cerebral cortical developing in the living fetus may provide critical insights on the timing and progression of impaired cerebral development in the high-risk fetus.

Published 12 May 2011 in Brain Struct Funct.
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Articles on MRI published 12 May 2011:

Comparison of MRI-based assessment systems for osteoarthritic knees: the irregularity index system and WORMS.   J Orthop Sci.

PURPOSE: Several MRI-based evaluation systems for osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee have been developed. Among them the whole-organ magnetic resonance imaging score (WORMS), which evaluates the status of the entire knee joint, appears to be representative. We developed an irregularity index system to measure irregularities of the contours of the femoral condyle on MRI. Only the contour of the condyle was assessed by the irregularity index, whereas several items comprising the knee joint were ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

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