title: Fetal abdominal magnetic resonance imaging.
abstract: This review deals with the in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) appearance of the human fetal abdomen. Imaging findings are correlated with current knowledge of human fetal anatomy and physiology, which are crucial to understand and interpret fetal abdominal MRI scans. As fetal MRI covers a period of more than 20 weeks, which is characterized not only by organ growth, but also by changes and maturation of organ function, a different MR appearance of the fetal abdomen results. This not only applies to the fetal intestines, but also to the fetal liver, spleen, and adrenal glands. Choosing the appropriate sequences, various aspects of age-related and organ-specific function can be visualized with fetal MRI, as these are mirrored by changes in signal intensities. Knowledge of normal development is essential to delineate normal from pathological findings in the respective developmental stages.
authors.affiliation: Center of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Integrative Morphology Group, Medical University of Vienna, Waehringerstrasse 13, 1090 Vienna, Austria. peter.brugger@meduniwien.ac.at
authors.forename: Peter C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Brugger
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Prayer
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000196:embryology*; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000196:embryology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D011247:Pregnancy