Lateral ventricular volume measurement by 3D MR hydrography in fetal ventriculomegaly and normal lateral ventricles.

Abstract

In fetuses with prenatal ventriculomegaly (VM), ventricular volume on MRI has been shown to correlate with poor postnatal outcomes and in utero death. 3D magnetic resonance hydrography (MRH) has been widely used for MR cholangiopancreatography. To investigate the reliability of 3D MRH for lateral ventricular volume measurement in fetuses with VM and normal lateral ventricles, using manual multisection planimetry (MSP) as a reference standard. Prospective study. Thirty-five fetuses with VM at 24-37 gestational weeks (GA) and 35 fetuses with normal lateral ventricles at 24-38 GA. 1.5T MRI with 3D MRH and T2 -weighted single-shot fast-spin echo sequence. Left, right, and total lateral ventricle volumes in fetuses were acquired from 3D MRH and manual MSP. All image analysis was performed by a radiologist twice and another radiologist once, blindly. Analysis of linear regression analysis, Pearson's correlation coefficient, Bland-Altman plots, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and independent samples t-test were used for statistical analyses. There were highly significant relationships between all 3D MRH and manual MSP measurements of lateral ventricular volumes (rVM = 0.92-0.98; rN = 0.95-0.98; all P < 0.0001; VM: VM group, N: normal group), although left, right, and total lateral ventricular volumes measured by 3D MRH tended to be slightly larger than MSP (biasVM 0.1 ± 0.95, 0.26 ± 0.63, and 0.3 ± 0.68 mL, respectively; biasN 0.1 ± 0.95, 0.26 ± 0.63, and 0.3 ± 0.68 mL, respectively). Interrater agreement and intrarater repeatability were also excellent for 3D MRH (ICCVM = 0.994-0.99, ICCN = 0.989-0.992; ICCVM = 0.975-0.987, ICCN = 0.958-0.971, respectively). 3D MRH showed significantly reduced measurement time (VM: 3.55 ± 0.42 vs. 11.81 ± 0.13 min; N: 3.08 ± 0.39 vs. 12.12 ± 0.11 min; all P < 0.0001). Lateral ventricular volume measurement by 3D MRH was comparable to manual MSP. 1 Technical Efficacy Stage 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2017.