{"doi":"10.1002/jmri.29077","title":"Reference Values for Fetal Cardiac Dimensions, Volumes, Ventricular Function and Left Ventricular Longitudinal Strain Using Doppler Ultrasound Gated Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Healthy Third Trimester Fetuses","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Recent advances in hardware and software permit the use of cardiac MRI of late gestation fetuses, however there is a paucity of MRI-based reference values. PURPOSE: To provide initial data on fetal cardiac MRI-derived cardiac dimensions, volumes, ventricular function, and left ventricular longitudinal strain in healthy developing fetuses >30 weeks gestational age. STUDY TYPE: Prospective. POPULATION: Twenty-five third trimester (34 ± 1 weeks, range of 32-37 weeks gestation) women with healthy developing fetuses. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: Studies were performed at 1.5 T and 3 T. Cardiac synchronization was achieved with a Doppler ultrasound device. The protocol included T2 single shot turbo spin echo stacks for fetal weight and ultrasound probe positioning, and multiplanar multi-slice cine balanced steady state free precession gradient echo sequences. ASSESSMENT: Primary analyses were performed by a single observer. Weight indexed right ventricular (RV) and left ventricular (LV) volumes and function were calculated from short axis (SAX) stacks. Cardiac dimensions were calculated from the four-chamber and SAX stacks. Single plane LV longitudinal strain was calculated from the four-chamber stack. Interobserver variability was assessed in 10 participants. Cardiac MRI values were compared against available published normative fetal echocardiogram data using z-scores. STATISTICAL TESTS: Mean and SDs were calculated for baseline maternal/fetal demographics, cardiac dimensions, volumes, ventricular function, and left ventricular longitudinal strain. Bland-Altman and intraclass correlation coefficient analysis was performed to test interobserver variability. RESULTS: The mean gestational age was 34 ± 1.4 weeks. The mean RV and LV end diastolic volumes were 3.1 ± 0.6 mL/kg and 2.4 ± 0.5 mL/kg respectively. The mean RV cardiac output was 198 ± 49 mL/min/kg while the mean LV cardiac output was 173 ± 43 mL/min/kg. DATA CONCLUSION: This paper reports initial reference values obtained by cardiac MRI in healthy developing third trimester fetuses. MRI generally resulted in slightly larger indexed values (by z-score) compared to reports in literature using fetal echocardiography. EVIDENCE LEVEL: 1 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 2.","journal":"Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging","year":2023,"id":335667,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":20,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.5959,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":365025,"name":"Erin K. Englund","orcid":"0000-0002-0231-1289","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":517994,"name":"Richard Friesen","orcid":"0000-0002-1613-2257","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1065587,"name":"Takashi Fujiwara","orcid":"0000-0002-0565-0075","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":284456,"name":"Sarah A. Smith","orcid":"0000-0001-9615-5581","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1065588,"name":"Mariana L. Meyers","orcid":"0000-0001-9817-2246","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":662430,"name":"Lorna P. Browne","orcid":"0000-0002-8080-5276","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":493631,"name":"Alex J. Barker","orcid":"0000-0002-6283-9157","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1065586,"name":"Prashant K. Minocha","orcid":"0000-0002-0608-0131","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":33,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:10:02.777338Z","pmid":"37855630","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}