Originally published October 5 2005
Children's Hospital study finds MRI techniques useful in detecting infant heart defects
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
At the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, pediatric cardiologist Mark Fogel led a study that employed three-dimensional MRI technology to study infant hearts, a significant improvement over the images produced by fetal echocardiography.
With echocardiography, the heart looks like a shadow.
It looks more like a heart with real-time MRI, with excellent soft tissue contrast," said pediatric cardiologist Mark A. Fogel, M.D., director of Cardiac MRI at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
A research team led by Dr. Fogel reported preliminary findings based on studies on two fetuses in the September/October 2005 issue of Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy.
It was the first example of functional MRI used for cardiac imaging in fetuses.
MRI produces three-dimensional images, whereas echocardiography typically relies on geometric assumptions to measure how big the heart is in the fetus, added Dr. Fogel.
One consequence of this capability is that MRI can directly measure the volume of the heart's ventricles.
"For example, if the fetus has poor heart function, a physician might prescribe a drug that improves pumping, or might recommend an earlier delivery," he added.
"Better knowledge of specifics of a heart's structure and function could help the physician and parents better prepare for surgery on the infant after birth.
This technology may also be useful in determining how the heart becomes malformed in the mother's womb."
Although further studies will be necessary to build on his team's preliminary results, Dr. Fogel suggests that fetal cardiac MRI may be used to complement echocardiography in cases where the latter technology cannot adequately visualize heart structures.
Furthermore, he added, advances in MRI technology may enhance its medical capabilities for fetal medicine.
Previously, fetal movement blurred MRI imaging, but as shown in the current study, real-time functional MRI provides usable images in an unsedated, moving fetus.
"We expect future MRI technology to provide better resolution and sharper images, produced in shorter times," he said.
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