Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Placental Function and Fetal Development

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has emerged as a powerful non-invasive modality for characterising the placenta and its role in foetal development. By exploiting multiple contrasts—such as relaxometry, diffusion, perfusion and blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) imaging—researchers can assess microstructure, vascular flow, tissue oxygenation and mechanical properties across gestation. Advanced image-processing pipelines correct for motion, reconstruct high-resolution volumes and segment placental subregions to quantify gestational-age-dependent changes. This multi-parametric approach offers insight into physiological adaptation, placental insufficiency and the pathophysiology of conditions such as pre-eclampsia, foetal growth restriction and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) outcomes. The global significance of these methods lies in their potential to personalise prenatal care, guide intervention timing and improve neonatal prognosis by directly measuring placental health in vivo.

Research from Nature Portfolio

One foundational study applied BOLD MRI during maternal hyperoxia to generate voxel-wise maps of placental oxygen Time-To-Plateau. Delayed oxygenation responses were shown to correlate inversely with foetal brain and liver volumes at the time of scan and with birth weights, while prolonged time-to-plateau aligned with histopathological markers of placental insufficiency. This work demonstrated the feasibility of quantifying regional placental function in vivo and distinguishing healthy from compromised placental performance, laying the groundwork for clinical translation in monitoring high-risk pregnancies.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Placental Function and Fetal Development publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in magnetic resonance imaging in placental function and fetal development across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

T2* mapping: Measurement of transverse relaxation sensitive to variations in tissue oxygenation and magnetic susceptibility.
BOLD MRI: Blood-oxygenation-level-dependent technique exploiting paramagnetic properties of deoxyhaemoglobin to assess dynamic oxygenation changes.
Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI): MRI modality that quantifies the random motion of water molecules to probe tissue microstructure.
Intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM): Analytical framework within DWI that separates true molecular diffusion from microvascular perfusion.
Virtual magnetic resonance elastography (vMRE): Indirect method to estimate tissue stiffness by modelling diffusion-related metrics without requiring mechanical vibration.

References

1. Multi‐modal functional MRI to explore placental function over gestation. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (2018).
2. In Vivo Quantification of Placental Insufficiency by BOLD MRI: A Human Study. Scientific Reports (2017).
3. Fetal body organ T2* relaxometry at low field strength (FOREST). Medical Image Analysis (2024).
4. Association of intraplacental oxygenation patterns on dual‐contrast MRI with placental abnormality and fetal brain oxygenation. Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology (2023).
5. Value of placental virtual magnetic resonance elastography and intravoxel incoherent motion-based diffusion and perfusion in predicting adverse outcomes of small-for-gestational-age infants. Insights into Imaging (2023).