DWI could evaluate pregnancy-related dysfunctions, yet EPI’s sensitivity to motions and air/water/fat heterogeneities prevent these studies in preclinical settings. We developed DWI methodologies based on SPatiotemporal ENcoding (SPEN) for overcoming these obstacles, delivering ADC images at ≈150µm resolutions. We demonstrate the power of these new methods to resolve placental layers (maternal, fetal, trophoblastic) and umbilical cords, as well as brain features in developing mice fetuses. Daily monitoring of pregnancies for naïve and for eNOS-/- mice also showed differences in the development of placental and fetal (e.g. brain) structures. SPEN DWI thus opens the potential for the early detection of pregnancy disorders.
This abstract and the presentation materials are available to members only; a login is required.