{"doi":"10.1159/000539607","title":"The Fetal Spleen in Low-Risk Pregnancies and prior to Preterm Birth: Observational Study of the Role of Anatomical and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging","abstract":"INTRODUCTION: Spontaneous preterm birth complicates ∼7% of pregnancies and causes morbidity and mortality. Although infection is a common etiology, our understanding of the fetal immune system in vivo is limited. This study aimed to utilize T2-weighted imaging and T2* relaxometry (which is a proxy of tissue oxygenation) of the fetal spleen in uncomplicated pregnancies and in fetuses that were subsequently delivered spontaneously prior to 32 weeks. METHODS: Women underwent imaging including T2-weighted fetal body images and multi-eco gradient echo single-shot echo planar sequences on a Phillips Achieva 3T system. Previously described postprocessing techniques were applied to obtain T2- and T2*-weighted imaging of the fetal spleen and T2-weighted fetal body volumes. RESULTS: Among 55 women with uncomplicated pregnancies, an increase in fetal splenic volume, splenic:body volume, and a decrease in splenic T2* signal intensity was demonstrated across gestation. Compared to controls, fetuses who were subsequently delivered prior to 32 weeks' gestation (n = 19) had a larger spleen when controlled for the overall size of the fetus (p = 0.027), but T2* was consistent (p = 0.76). CONCLUSION: These findings provide evidence of a replicable method of studying the fetal immune system and give novel results on the impact of impending preterm birth on the spleen. While T2* decreases prior to preterm birth in other organs, preservation demonstrated here suggests preferential sparing of the spleen.","journal":"Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy","year":2024,"id":473503,"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":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9597,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":938183,"name":"Alena Uus","orcid":"0000-0001-5796-2145","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1309832,"name":"Megan Preston","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1125240,"name":"Natalie Suff","orcid":"0000-0002-0736-7046","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1125241,"name":"Deena L. Gibbons","orcid":"0000-0002-7953-3576","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":360906,"name":"Mary Rutherford","orcid":"0000-0003-3361-1337","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":73304,"name":"Andrew Shennan","orcid":"0000-0001-5273-3132","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":360900,"name":"Jana Hutter","orcid":"0000-0003-3476-3500","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":360905,"name":"Lisa Story","orcid":"0000-0001-9328-9592","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":951923,"name":"Megan Hall","orcid":"0000-0003-2756-6365","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":44,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:06:04.967429Z","pmid":"38857593","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":[]}