Failure to detect intrauterine growth restriction following in utero exposure to MRI

Echo planar imaging is a form of MRI with short image acquisition times, which permits in utero fetal imaging without motion artefacts. Echo planar imaging has been used to measure accurately fetal organ volume and to assess placental function. Two small animal studies have suggested the possibility of intrauterine growth restriction consequent upon MRI. We thus performed a prospective study of pregnancies in which fetuses were exposed to echo planar imaging, compared with a control group in which there was no in utero echo planar imaging exposure. There were no significant differences between the groups when maternal age, parity, proportion of smokers and proportion of Caucasian women were compared. Although the gestational age of delivery was lower in the echo planar imaging group, the proportion of women delivering prematurely was not significantly different. Although infant birthweights were significantly lower in the MRI group, the corrected birthweight for gestational age centiles (individualized birthweight ratio) was not significantly different between the two groups. In utero exposure to echo planar imaging thus did not have a marked effect on intrauterine fetal growth. A 10 year follow-up study of all infants imaged in utero is being performed.