PLoS ONE (Jan 2013)

Fetal adrenal gland in the second half of gestation: morphometrical assessment with 3.0T post-mortem MRI.

  • Zhonghe Zhang,
  • Haiwei Meng,
  • Zhongyu Hou,
  • Jun Ma,
  • Lei Feng,
  • Xiangtao Lin,
  • Yuchun Tang,
  • Xiaoli Zhang,
  • Qingwei Liu,
  • Shuwei Liu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075511
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 10
p. e75511

Abstract

Read online

BACKGROUND: The morphometry of fetal adrenal gland is rarely described with MRI of high magnetic field. The purpose of this study is to assess the normal fetal adrenal gland length (AL), width (AW), height (AH), surface area (AS) and volume (AV) in the second half of gestation with 3.0T post-mortem MRI. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Fifty-two fetal specimens of 23-40 weeks gestational age (GA) were scanned by 3.0T MRI. Morphological changes and quantitative measurements of the fetal adrenal gland were analyzed. Asymmetry and sexual dimorphism were also obtained. The shape of the fetal adrenal gland did not change substantially from 23 to 40 weeks GA. The bilateral adrenal glands appeared as a 'Y', pyramidal or half-moon shape after reconstruction. There was a highly linear correlation between AL, AW, AH, AS, AV and GA. AW, AH, AS and AV were larger for the left adrenal gland than the right. No sexual dimorphism was found. CONCLUSIONS: Our data delineated the normal fetal adrenal gland during the second half of gestation, and can serve as a useful precise reference for anatomy or in vivo fetus.