Semi-automatic segmentation of the placenta into fetal and maternal compartments using intravoxel incoherent motion MRI

Wonsang You; Nickie Andescavage; Zungho Zun; Catherine Limperopoulos

doi:10.1117/12.2254610

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13 March 2017 Semi-automatic segmentation of the placenta into fetal and maternal compartments using intravoxel incoherent motion MRI

Wonsang You, Nickie Andescavage, Zungho Zun, Catherine Limperopoulos

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Proceedings Volume 10137, Medical Imaging 2017: Biomedical Applications in Molecular, Structural, and Functional Imaging; 1013726 (2017) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2254610
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2017, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

Intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) magnetic resonance imaging is an emerging non-invasive technique that has been recently applied to quantify in vivo global placental perfusion. We propose a robust semi-automated method for segmenting the placenta into fetal and maternal compartments from IVIM data, using a multi-label image segmentation algorithm called ‘GrowCut’. Placental IVIM data were acquired on a 1.5T scanner from 16 healthy pregnant women between 21-37 gestational weeks. The voxel-wise perfusion fraction was then estimated after non-rigid image registration. The seed regions of the fetal and maternal compartments were determined using structural T2-weighted reference images, and improved progressively through an iterative process of the GrowCut algorithm to accurately encompass fetal and maternal compartments. We demonstrated that the placental perfusion fraction decreased in both fetal (-0.010/week) and maternal compartments (-0.013/week) while their relative difference (f_fetal-f_maternal) gradually increased with advancing gestational age (+0.003/week, p=0.065). Our preliminary results show that the proposed method was effective in distinguishing placental compartments using IVIM.

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Wonsang You, Nickie Andescavage, Zungho Zun, and Catherine Limperopoulos "Semi-automatic segmentation of the placenta into fetal and maternal compartments using intravoxel incoherent motion MRI", Proc. SPIE 10137, Medical Imaging 2017: Biomedical Applications in Molecular, Structural, and Functional Imaging, 1013726 (13 March 2017); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2254610

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